ANIMAL ELECTRICITY 



"Wonderful as are the laws and phenomena of 

 electricity when made evident to us in inorganic 

 or dead matter, their interest can bear scarcely 

 any comparison with thnt which attaches to the 

 same force when connected with the nervous sys- 

 tem and with life." — Faraday. '■'' Experimental 

 Researches in Electricity.'''' Eifteenth series, 1844. 



LECTURE L 



Currents of animal electricity are produced by animal voltaic 

 couples, in which injured or active protoplasm is electro- 

 positive ("zincative"), resting protoplasm electro-negative 

 (" zincable "). 



The utilisation of a nerve as a test-object representative of living 

 matter. 



Experiments. — Current of a voltaic couple. Current of injury of 

 muscle — its negative variation. Current of injury of nerve 

 — its negative variation. Parallelism between mechanical 

 and electrical effects. Electrical effects of non-electrical 

 stimuli. Action of ether and of chloroform upon isolated 

 nerve. 



The master-key to many otherwise most intricate 

 and complex problems of animal electricity is a very- 

 simple idea. Active matter is electropositive^ to in- 



^ This nomenclature, which is the opposite to the conven- 

 tional denotation, will perhaps be found justified by the context 



