ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE 155 



With a rise of temperature the resistance of the clear 

 substance of the muscle and of Krause's membranes would 

 be reduced ; with a fall of temperature the resistance of 

 both would be increased. What the relative fall or rise of 

 resistance is I have no means of determining, but, broadly 

 speaking, a considerable rise of temperature might seriously 

 impair the action of the condenser-compartments (sar- 

 comeres) by breaking down the resistance of Krause's 

 membranes, and so, wholly or partly, short-circuiting the 

 condensers ; while a considerable fall of temperature 

 might increase the resistance of the clear substance to such 

 an extent that the low-tension nerve-charge could not 

 overcome it, with the result that the muscle would, 

 temporarily, become paralysed. 



A further section deals with excised muscles, and lays 

 stress upon the fact that a series of stimuli of the same 

 strength causes a series of contractions which are greater 

 than at first (Wundt), and argues from that, that although 

 the first feeble stimulus may be unable to discharge a 

 contraction (? cause a contraction) the second may, because 

 the first one has increased the muscular excitability (Fick). 



By excised muscles I understand dead muscles. There 

 is an essential difference between the living and the non- 

 living ; but even in non-living muscular fibre we should 

 have condenser-action while its structure remained un- 

 impaired. But it does not follow that the conductivity of 

 the clear substance and the resistance of Krause's mem- 

 branes would be exactly the same as in living musde t 

 Discharge cannot occur until contraction is completed, 

 and whereas in living muscle one impulse may be sufficient, 

 a dozen or more might, conceivably, be conveyed to dead 

 muscle before contraction could be completed and dis- 

 charge or neutralisation effected if its capacity is altered 

 by death, or some change is brought about by death in the 

 elasticity of the sarcous substance. 



