ANIMAL ELECTRICITY.— LECTURE I. I 5 



There is, however, one preHmlnary objection to 

 the unHmited admission of this conclusion that must 

 be taken at once. 



We arouse action in the nerve by artificial 

 "stimulation," and our artificial stimuli may be elec- 

 trical, chemical, mechanical, 8cc. As a matter of 

 convenience we most frequently employ electrical 

 stimulation from an induction coil. May we be sure 

 that the animal electric effects are not due to our 

 electrical apparatus ? An exhaustive examination at 

 this stage of the means by which the answer is 

 obtained would lead us too far afield ; and I shall 

 content myself with saying that while electrical 

 effects aroused in nerve may sometimes be coarse 

 fallacies, and are in general most pronounced when 

 electrical stimulation has been used, yet they can 

 certainly be produced by non-electrical stimuli, and 

 even when produced by electrical stimuli, are phe- 

 nomena proper to the living state of nerve. Reasons 

 for admitting this will be offered presently by means 

 of anaesthetics, as soon as we have clearly appreciated 

 the bearing of this variation of our first experi- 

 ment (on muscle), in which an electrical effect results 

 from non-electrical excitation. The muscle is con- 

 nected as usual with the galvanometer by points 

 L and T, giving as usual the current of injury 

 from T to L (in the muscle). I now excite the 

 nerve by pinching it, i.e., non-electrically ; the muscle 

 contracts and the current of injury is at the same 

 time diminished. 



