ELECTRO -PHYSIOLOGY. 293 



Your attention ia finally called to what has taken place from causing an elec- 

 trical current to pass for several days into a large piece of flannel moistened 

 with a slightly salt solution, and on which were scattered seeds of the mustard, 

 millet, and vetch. You observe that, in contact with the negative electrode, the 

 seeds have already germinated and have even the small leaves, but this is not 

 the case with those in contact with the positive electrode. Neither is this phe- 

 nomenon an electro-physiological one, properly speaking, but a secondary effect 

 of electricity. At the negative electrode is developed the alkali, and at the 

 positive the acid, as is shown by the reactive paper. Now, in the slightly al- 

 kaline solution seeds germinate more readily than in pure water, and in the acid 

 solution they do not germinate at all. In germination the diastasis should act 

 upon the fecula in order to render it soluble, and convert it into dextrine and 

 glucose, and this does not take place in presence of the acid, or, rather, takes 

 place better in presence of a slightly alkaline solution. This is also shown by 

 experiments in which, independently of a current, I have placed the same seeds, 

 some in contact with slightly alkaline solutions, and some in contact with acid 

 solutions. The seeds have germinated in the first case and not in the second. 



Let us come now to true electro-physiological phenomena ; that is, to the con- 

 tractions which are excited in an animal, either living or recently dead, by the 

 passage of electricity. It is thus that we designate the electric shock; the pain 

 and involuntary muscular contraction which occur when we touch the two ar- 

 matures of a charged Leyden jar, or the poles of a battery formed of several 

 pairs, or the extremities of a spiral of an apparatus of induction. Before pro- 

 ceeding it is, perhaps, not superfluous to observe, that the property which the 

 muscles possess of contracting is inherent in their nature, and that this property 

 is chiefly manifested through the excitation of the nervous fibres distributed in 

 the muscle. There is no muscle entirely destitute of nerves, by which may be 

 demonstrated the truth first announced by Haller, that the muscles possess con- 

 tractility. This truth is conformable to all physiological analogies, and the 

 experiments are various by which it is established. 



I have here two prepared frogs : one of them was poisoned with curare, the 

 other killed while the first was dying. If I touch the nerves of the poisoned 

 frog with the poles of a battery no muscular contraction is excited, but on 

 operating with the current on the muscles contraction is manifested. In the 

 other frog contraction takes place in both modes. The muscle then will con- 

 tract under direct irritation when the nerves have lost their excitability. Lately 

 a young French physiologist, M. Faivre, has shown that several hours after 

 death, and when the nerves have lost all excitability, the muscular irritability 

 is augmented. We have here, then, two distinct things : the irritability of the 

 muscles, and the capacity of the nerves to awaken that irritability. 



I will remind you, further, that from one of the finest experiments of physiol- 

 ogy, for which we are indebted to Charles Bell, we know that roots of nerves 

 issue from the spinal medulla, which, before uniting to form the so-called mixed 

 nerves distributed in the muscles and in all parts of the body, have distinct 

 properties. If the anterior roots -be irritated, very strong muscular contractions 

 occur, and nothing else; if the posterior roots, the animal utters cries and gives 

 signs of pain, but there is no contraction. By irritating the mixed nerves in a 

 living animal we obtain at the same time contractions and signs of pain. 



Let us begin by preparing a frog in such a manner as may serve to exhibit 

 contraction with the electric current. For that purpose it is divided in half 

 below the upper members, the skin taken off", the viscera are removed from the 

 lower section, and by introducing the scissors under the spinal or lumbar nerves 

 a part of the pelvis is separated, by which means the animal is reduced to a por- 

 tion of the spine, the lumbar plexus, and the two hinder legs. This is called 

 the frog prepared after the manner of Galvani. I take a small pair of plates 

 of Volta, formed with a wire of zinc and one of copper or platina twisted or 



