340 



INHIBITION BY EXCITATION AND 



former case, the effects of the excitation on the anodic half of the 

 muscle seem less marked than those on the side of the kathode ; this 

 may be attributed in the main to the greater density of the current at 



. . . . i 



TIMELINE 



Fig. 9. 



Fig. 9. Tracings obtained in the same way as in Fig. 8 when the exciting- 

 current was directed f . 



the point of exit. The sudden relaxation of the kathodic half of 

 the muscle on opening the current is then shown with extreme 

 distinctness and is recognised at once as a phenomenon equivalent 

 to the anodic inhibition of closing. 



From this description of the variations in form which are observed 

 when a veratrine muscle in tonic contraction is excited electrically, 

 and from a consideration of the examples of the curves which are 

 given, we perceive at once that we are dealing here with essentially 

 local changes of the muscle, confined to the immediate neighbour- 



