THE EFFECT OF IRRITATION OF A POLARIZED NERVE-" PFLU- 

 GER'S ELECTROTONUS." 



By B. F. Lautenbach, M. D., Ph. D., 



First Assistant in the Laboratory of Physiology at Geneva. 



HISTORICAL RESUME. 



Eitter* observed, when he applied for a long time (i hour) a strong 

 galvanic battery to a nerve, that there resulted a continual decrease in 

 the movements of the finger and the arm on the silver (i e., negative) 

 side of the battery. In the same parts on the zinc (positive) side he ob- 

 served a continual increase in the motor effects of the current. This 

 effect lasted for a short time after the exi^eriment was discontinued. 



On carefully repeating this experiment, Kitter came to the result that 

 the current developed by the battery inhibited the voluntary movements 

 in the arm to which the negative electrode was applied, while the mo- 

 bility of the other arm, to which the positive electrode was applied, was 

 increased. 



Du Bois Reymondt attributed these results to diminution and aug- 

 mentation of the irritability of the nerves caused by the constant cur- 

 rent ; the augmented excitability being produced by the passage of an 

 ascending current, while the diminished excitability was caused by a 

 descending current. 



In 1828-'30 Nobili| observed certain facts which bear more nearly 

 on our present subject than those observed by either of the previous ex- 

 perimenters. This investigator found that frog preparations, which 

 through accident had become tetanized, grow quiet when a current in 

 a special, or possibly in any, direction, was passed through the nerve. 

 In exjjlauation, Nobili believed that the constant current places the 

 nerve in such a state as to render impossible the receiving and conduct- 

 ing of the contraction-producing cause. Nobili, at the same time, rec- 

 ommended his discovery to i)hysicians for the cure of tetanus. 



Matteucci§ made some experiments on this subject, but these resulted 

 in but little that was not previously known. With the exception that 

 he proved that the relief afforded in tetanus by a constant current is but 



* Beitriigo zur uiilieiTm Keuntuiss des Galvanismus, etc., Jeua, 1802, B. ii. 

 t Uuters. liber thierischo Electric! tiit, B. i, p. 367. 



t Analyse esp6r. et th6or. des ph6n. phys. produits par I'dlectric. sur le grenouille, 

 etc., Anuales de chiuiie et phys., 1830, p. 91. 



$ Esaai sur les ph^ii. ^lectr, des animaux, Paris, 1840, 8, p. 29. 



361 



