86 STUDIES IN ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY: 



generator, and the medium for the conveyance of energy, let 

 us next look at the distribution. 



" The order of distribution seems to bear some signifi- 

 cance 



" 1st. The heart muscle. Remembering the structure 

 of heart muscle, its ganglia, and the function 

 performed by the heart, the call for and supply of 

 this organ with energy is paramount. 



" 2nd. Next in order of supply and importance is the 

 nervous system. 



" 3rd. The other tissues and organs of the body. 



" The order from the generator is, therefore, the pump 

 for circulating the carrier, then the nervous system, whose 

 chief function, through the sympathetic, is the regulation, by 

 vaso-motor and vaso-inhibitory nerve-fibres, of the blood 

 supply to all tissues and organs ; and if we substitute the 

 word ' energy ' for ' blood ' we can follow the thought 

 through. This control is important in disease, as it gives 

 the power to send more blood to the area attacked, and the 

 converse is equally important as explaining a fallacy in 

 galvanometer testing, as I will show later. 



" The voluntary system (apart from sensation) has 

 chiefly to do with the movement or the control of muscular 

 contraction resulting in movement. Striped muscle, i.e., 

 the muscles under the control of the voluntary system, 

 will to the electrician at once suggest an electrical apparatus 

 which can be set in motion on being connected up. 



" If, therefore, the nervous system, sharing the common 

 energy of the body with every other cell and organ, has a 

 special function of control to perform, it must have some 

 form of insulation or this energy would be dissipated 

 through moist tissue, and the control of blood supply and 

 the movement of muscle would be lost. It is probable, 

 indeed I think established, that the electrical balance of 

 each cell membrane throughout the body, and the resulting 

 life of the cell, are under the control of and kept in balance 



