No. 2.] 



NERVE-MUSCLE EXPERIMENTS. 



387 



In concluding his able discussion of the ether effect (Amer. 

 Jour. Med. Sciences, 1888, Bowditch says on p. 8: "These 

 experiments by Ellis prove beyond a doubt that the effects 

 observed by Perkins on stimulating a nerve immersed in a 

 solution of ether, can be obtained with other drugs, and often 

 with very weak currents without any drug. Without ether, 

 flexion and adduction are to be obtained only with very feeble 

 currents, but with ether much stronger stimulation produces 

 the same effect. In both cases, however, an increase in the 

 intensity of the stimulus causes these movements to give 

 place to extension and abduction ; tJie effect of tJie etJicr may, 

 therefore, be said to consist in transferring tJie point, on the 

 scale of intensity, at which the effect of nerve irritation changes 

 from flexion and adduction to extension and abdjictio7t, from the 



