Ill 



ELECTRICAL EXCITATION OF MUSCLE 



201 



the excitatory effect of a current is lessened to an extraordinary 

 degree when it passes in and out by artificial sections, or other- 

 wise injured points of the fibre, it is clear that in all these last 

 experiments the relations of excitability may appear to alter in 

 favour of transverse passage of current under certain conditions^ 

 And if a nrach lower excitability of muscle is really found 

 to exist with transverse passage of current, it can only be 



FIG. 84. Apparatus for passing current transversely through the muscle (sartorius). (Hering.) 

 (Catalogue of Physiological Apparatus. R. Rothe, University Mechanician in Prague.) 



viewed as an a fortiori proof that the latter is a weaker stimulus 

 than the longitudinal current. The point has been experi- 

 mentally decided by D. Leicher. He used apparatus, which cor- 

 responded essentially with the method employed much earlier by 

 Hering for the same purpose (Fig. 84). The muscle (curarised 

 sartorius) was fixed between two clamps by the bones at either 

 end, just as in Hering's double myograph. One clamp is fixed, 

 the other is left free, and communicates the movement of the 



