410 OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS 



12. Experiments on living electrical nerve and organ after 

 separation. 



The following experiments were made on a dying- Malapterurus 

 which had been used for several previous investigations. 



When the electrical nerve was laid on the platinum plate of the 

 leading-in apparatus 1 , and was tetanised, tetanus of a nerve-muscle 

 preparation followed, wherever on the organ of the same side, the 

 nerve was placed. If the stimulation of the electrical nerve is con- 

 tinued, the organ does not produce a continuous current, as one 

 might suppose, but a series of rapidly succeeding shocks, just as the 

 contraction and variation of current in a muscle, which are produced 

 by continuous excitation of its nerve are only apparently constant. 

 It is a proof of the small amount of discernment with which 

 Matteucci conducted his numberless experiments, that he left such 

 fundamental questions for me to answer 2 . 



The needle of the multiplier, connected with the fish by 

 platinum electrodes, was deflected at the commencement of the 

 tetanus, but took up no fixed position. However, it might be 

 possible that with unpolarisable electrodes and with an aperiodic 

 light magnet, the result would be different. The positive polari- 

 sation of the organ by its own current 3 might be matter for 

 consideration. After a few minutes rest, the tetanus was again 

 observed. I find no mention in my diary as to the distance of the 

 secondary coil, at which it occurred. 



When a current of two Groves was sent through the nerve 

 nothing resulted. With five Groves, a shock at closing the current 

 took place, which showed itself by twitching of the nerve-muscle 

 preparation, and in the galvanometer, by a deflection in the right 

 direction. The great strength of current required for the stimu- 

 lation of the nerves was very surprising ; however, the nerve was 

 no longer fresh, and it was not possible to make comparative 

 observations. It therefore remained uncertain, whether it might 



the Torpedo B, or even of the Torpedo A itself can reach in the Torpedo A, ibid. 

 1873, p. 684. 



1 TJntersuchungen, etc., vol. i. p. 450, Tab. ii. Fig. 20, 21. 



3 Four years later than I, Moreau also stated that tetanising the electrical nerve 

 (in the Torpedo) produces an uninterrupted series of shocks, without saying however, 

 how this was observed (Annales des Sciences naturelles, etc., 4. SeVie, Zoologie, 

 1862, t. xviii. p. 10). This statement was incorrectly regarded as new by the 

 reporters of his work, MM. Claude Bernard and Becquerel senior (Comptes 

 rendus, etc., 1862, vol. liv. p. 966). Comp. also Marey in the Comptes rendus, etc., 

 1871, t. Ixiii. p. 918. See moreover Boll, Archiv fur Anatomie, etc., 1873, p. 79. 



3 See Gesammelte Abhandlungen, vol. ii. xxxi. 6. 



