224 ELECTRIC CURRENT. L.ECT. XII. XIII. 



LECTURES XII. AND XIII. 



PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF THE ELECTRIC CURRENT. 



ARGUMENT. Effects of statistical electricity on living beings. Galvani's 

 hypothesis of animal electricity. Convulsions produced in living and 

 recently killed animals by the electric current. 



Action of direct and inverse currents on the sciatic nerve of a frog. Two 

 periods in the action of the current. Reflex movements caused by the 

 current. Effects of the current on the nerves of recently killed ani- 

 mals. 



Action of the current on muscular fibre. Tne contractility of the fibre is 

 inherent. 



Voltaic alternatives. Contractions renewed in the muscles of a frog by 

 reversing the current. 



Action of the current on poisoned animals. Further evidence that the 

 muscular fibre contracts under the influence of the current, indepen- 

 dently of the nerve. 



Action of the current on a nerve to which a ligature has been applied. 



Opposite effects of ihe direct and inverse current. Brequet's apparatus 

 for measuring the contraction caused by the current. General conciu. 

 sions. Effect of repose on a nerve which has been submitted to the 

 electric current. 



Theory of the action of the electric current on the nerves. 



Effects of the electric current on the brain, on the columns of the spinal 

 marrow, on the roots of the spinal nerves, on the nerves of sensation, and 

 on the ganglionic nerves. 



Effects of the interrupted current on the excitability of nerves ; it more 

 speedily exhausts the nerves than the continued current. Masson's ap- 

 paratus. 



Therapeutical uses of the eh ctric current. Employment of it in paralysis, 

 and in tetanus ; rules for its application. It is useless in the treat- 

 ment of urinary calculi and cataract. Proposed employment of it in 

 aneurism. 



IN this lecture I shall examine the physiological action 

 of electrici'y. 



