In ordinary muscular contraction, then, there is good reason to 

 believe that the muscular current is enfeebled enfeebled to a degree 

 approaching very closely to extinction ; and in rigor mortis all traces 

 of muscular current have disappeared. It appears, indeed, as if 

 muscular contraction were antagonized by the muscular current. 



In tracing out the history of muscular action from an electrical 

 point of view, the author proceeds, in the next place, to consider 

 the mode in which the muscular current is affected by the nerve- 

 current. In doing this, after describing the peculiarities of the 

 nerve-current, and relating a beautiful experiment of Prof. Du Bois 

 Reymond, in which it is seen that the nerve-current agrees with the 

 muscular current in exhibiting a positive loss of force during mus- 

 cular contraction ; he interprets the reactions which must take place 

 between the nerve-current aad the muscular current by appealing to 

 the history of the electrical organ of the torpedo and its congeners. 

 The interpretation is that the reactions during muscular contraction 

 are, not between the primary nerve-current and the muscular cur- 

 tent, but between the muscular current and the secondary or induced 

 currents which may be supposed to spring into existence when the 

 primary or inducing nerve- current is suspended or renewed. The 

 fact that the nerve-current sinks during contraction, is appealed to 

 as an argument that the primary nerve-current is actually suspended 

 and renewed during muscular contraction, and that in this manner 

 the occasions for the appearance of the secondary or induced cur- 

 rents are thus properly provided for. It is pointed out that the 

 reactions between the uninterrupted nerve-current and the muscular 

 current, and between the muscular current and the induced or se- 

 condary currents which come into play when the primary or inducing 

 nerve-current is interrupted or renewed, must be altogether different. 

 With respect to the reactions which take place between the uninter- 

 rupted nerve- current and the muscular current, there is reason to 

 believe that these must result in mutual intensification, for the nerve- 

 current and the muscular current pass in the same direction. At any 

 rate this is the case in the hind-limbs of the frog, or the fore-limbs 

 of the same animal, and in the hind-limbs of the rabbit, dog, cat, and 

 mouse. With respect to the reactions which take place between the 

 muscular current and the secondary currents which come into play 

 when the primary or inducing nerve-current is suspended or renewed, 



