2 ANIMAL ELECTRICITY. LECTURE I. 



active matter ; more active matter is electropositive 

 to less active matter ; matter that is by any means 

 stirred up to greater activity is rendered electro- 

 positive towards undisturbed matter, matter whose 

 action is lowered is electronegative to matter whose 

 action is normal. 



Picture to yourself a uniform mass or strand of 

 protoplasm, that is to say of living matter, inactive at 



Fig. I. — A lump of protoplasm as a voltaic couple. 



Any injured, i.e.^ chemically active spot B is zincative to any uninjured spot 

 A. Current in the lump is from B to A, in the galvanometer from A to B. 



of these lectures. In the phraseology generally employed by 

 physiologists the active spot is said to be " negative," and the 

 term "negativity of action" is derived from this. But more 

 correctly speaking the active spot is positive, and we should 

 properly say " positivity of action." But to reverse these and 

 other derived terms in common use would lead to hopeless con- 

 fusion, which I desire to escape by employing the terms zincative, 

 zincativity. Moreover we shall soon experience the want of a 

 word to denote that a resting spot, capable of activity, is capable 

 of becoming positive, or has a capability for becoming positive ; 

 this will be met by the words zincable, zincability, which are by 

 no means to be taken as synonymous with the terms excitable, 



