347 



scribed, that is, I press this strip of glass slightly on the middle of 

 the thigh on one side, and at the same time the extremities of the 

 two woollen cords come to rest on the cushions. The movements of 

 the needle are observed through a telescope (lunette). I have re- 

 peated this experiment thirty or forty times. Sometimes, and this 

 case is the most frequent, the first deviation produced by the muscle in 

 repose is directed in the same sense as that of the current of the 

 gastrocnemius ; sometimes the current is null, or almost null ; some- 

 times, and this case is the most rare, the deviation is in a contrary 

 direction, and this occurs most frequently in operating on the hinder 

 portion of the thigh. 



In all these experiments, the moment that the thigh begins to 

 contract, the needle moves in a constant direction; the deviation 

 which intervenes is greater or less according to the force of the 

 contraction, and indicates constantly a descending discharge or 

 current of extremely short duration, which traverses the thigh in the 

 direction of the ramification of the nerves, and in a contra^ direction 

 to the current of the gastrocnemius. 



II. "An Inquiry into the Muscular Movements resulting from 

 the action of a Galvanic Current upon Nerve." By 

 CHARLES BLAND RADCLIFFE, M.D., F.R.C.P., Physician 

 to the Westminster Hospital. Communicated by Dr. 

 SHARPEY, Sec. R.S. Received February 2, 1860. 



(Abstract.) 



In a lecture delivered about two years ago*, in which he treats 

 among other things of the muscular movements resulting from the 

 action of a galvanic current upon a motor or mixed nerve, Pro- 

 fessor Claude Bernard says that some of the more important of 

 these movements have been overlooked, and he quotes an account 

 of some investigations by Dr. Rousseau of Vezy, which do away with 

 certain very perplexing variations in the order of these movements. 



The movements resulting from the action of a galvanic current upon 

 nerve are usually divided into the three periods of double, alternate, 

 and single contraction which are set down in the following Table : 



* Lemons sur la Physiologic et Pathologic du systeme nerveux. Tome i. 

 Le<?on 10. Paris, 1858. 



