250 ELCTRIC CURRENT. LECT. XII. XIII- 



tween the two passages of the current is about ^ u of a 

 second, the interruptions were no longer perceptible, and 

 the effect produced was the same as with a continued cur- 

 rent. 



I have here a rabbit, which I shall submit to the pas- 

 sage of a current by means of Masson's wheel. One of 

 the conductors of the pile has been introduced into its 

 mouth, the other communicates with the muscles of the 

 back. Although the pile consists only of ten elements, the 

 animal dies within a few seconds. These powerful effects 

 must certainly be ascribed to the great loss of nervous 

 power effected in a very brief space of time. 



These results appear to me to explain readily Weber's 

 observation, that the pulsation of the heart ceases when the 

 interrupted current is made to act on its nerves. 



Therapeutical Use of the Current. I cannot conclude this 

 lecture without stating some of the therapeutical applica- 

 tions made of the electric current, and founded upon the 

 scientific principles, which I have made known to you. 



In Paralysis. Abstraction being made of all purely 

 theoretical ideas, and independently of all hypothesis of 

 the nervous force, we may admit that, in certain cases of 

 paralysis, the nerves undergo an alteration analogous to 

 that which they would suffer if they had been subjected to 

 a continued passage of the electric current. We have seen 

 that, in order to restore to a nerve the excitability lost by 

 the passage of this current, it is necessary to subject it to 

 the action of the inverse current. 



I must add, in favour of the efficacy of the therapeutic 

 use of this current, that a limb, although paralyzed, con- 

 stantly suffers some contractions when it is submitted, either 

 to the passage of a current or to the action of electric dis- 

 charges ; and these contractions favour the restoration of 

 the functions of the muscles. Experiment confirms these 



