176 MUSCULAR CURRENT. LECT. IX. 



LECTURE IX. 



ELECTRICAL CURRENT OF MUSCLES. 



ARGUMENT. The chemical actions going on in living beings develop 

 electricity as well as heat and light 



The galvanoscopic frog. 



Demonstration of the existence of an electrical current in the muscles of 

 recently killed, as well as of living frogs and other animals. 



The muscular pile ; its construction ; the direction of the current produced 

 by it is from the internal to the external surface of the muscle ; the in- 

 tensity of its current is proportionate to the extent of the series. 



The electric current of other tissues and organs. 



Agency of the nervous system in the production of the muscular current. 

 Influence of the organic conditions of the muscles; intensity of the cur- 

 rent in starved, in well nourished, in inflamed, and in engorged muscles 

 influence of temperature on the current; modifications produced by 

 poisons. 



Piles formed with muscles and their connected nerves. Origin of the 

 muscular current; Liebig's hypothesis; objection to it. 



Heat and Light evolved in the Organism. IN the pre- 

 ceding lectures, I have clearly proved that in animals there 

 is a constant production of heat, and in some cases, of light 

 also. Guided lyy experiments and evident analogies, we 

 have been forced to attribute the disengagement of heat and 

 of light, in the living organism, to chemical actions which 

 take place there ; and the result of this investigation has 

 been, the discovery of a fresh proof of the constancy of the 

 general effects of the great forces of nature. The facts 



