NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 117 



cannot repeat, but will confine myself to one, which may be applied 

 to the case in point. This experiment consists in introducing the 

 nerve of a sensitive galvanoscopic frog into the interior of a muscular 

 mass, cut in the direction of its fibres. On passing a tolerably strong 

 electric current through this mass, contractions lire never excited in the 

 prepared frog. It is then proved that, when a muscular mass is trav- 

 ersed by an electric current, the nervous filaments diffused through 

 the mass do not produce any sensible part of this current, so that the 

 effects obtained can be due only to the direct action of the electric 

 current upon the muscular fibre, and to the indirect action or the 

 influence of the electric current upon the nervous force. The follow- 

 ing are these effects. If, in a living rabbit, dog, or frog, we expose 

 the muscles of the legs, and pass an electric current from a pile of 

 thirty or forty elements through the muscles, applying one of the poles 

 to the upper and the other to the lower part of the leg, if the posi- 

 tive pole is placed above and the negative one below, so that the 

 electric current traverses the muscular substance in the direction of 

 the ramification of the nerves, a very powerful contraction is pro- 

 duced, not only in the muscles of the leg, but also in those of the 

 foot. 



" These results can be explained in but one way. The very power- 

 ful contraction excited by the electric current proves the existence of 

 a nervous current passing from the extremities towards the centre, 

 and developed under the influence of an electric current which trav- 

 erses the muscular mass in the contrary direction to that of the 

 ramification of the nerve. These conclusions have an important con- 

 nection with the law of electric discharges in fishes, which arise from 

 the production of a nervous current by the stimulation of the nerve, 

 which is distributed in the organ. But in the experiments described, 

 a nervous current is produced by the electric discharge passing through 

 the muscle. In the discharge of the torpedo, therefore, the electric 

 states are produced by the animal, while in the experiment the nervous 

 current is produced by the influence of the electric current" 



CURIOUS ELECTRICAL PHENOMENON. 



WE learn from a letter from a gentleman connected with the Bay- 

 State Mills, at Lawrence, Mass., some facts with reference to a new 

 and curious application of electricity which has been introduced into 

 those mills. The electricity is generated by the motion of the ma- 

 chinery, and is employed for lighting up the gas-burners. It exists in 

 large quantities in the card-rooms, where there are many belts rim- 

 niiig on iron pulleys, and, in the cold dry atmosphere of winter, often 

 produces serious damage to the quality of the carding. The manner 

 in which it was discovered that this electricity could be applied to 

 ' li^lilinir up," is somewhat curious. When the gas was first let 

 into the pipes in the mills, one of the overseers discovered fire jetting 

 out from one of the pipes near a belt, and on examination it was 

 ascertained tiiat a small stream of gas was escaping. It was surmised 

 that it had been ignited by the electricity, and to prove it. an expert- 



