388 



ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY 



CHAP. 



muscle have a special interest, inasmuch as they once more 

 illustrate the intimate relations (supra} which exist between the 

 current of action and the phenomena of contraction. According 

 to Lee, the curve of the former alters in the same sense as that of 

 the twitch, since on the one hand it decreases in height by the 

 reduction of all its ordinates, while on the other its time-relations 

 are more extended. 



We have seen that all electromotive manifestations in 



FIG. 123. a, Triphasic curve of variation in gastrocnemius muscle ; b, diphasic curve of variation 

 of sartorius muscle. Above is the normal, below the injured, muscle. (F. S. Lee.) 



isolated muscle, with direct or indirect excitation, may be easily 

 explained without further hypothesis by Hermann's alteration 

 theory, on the simple assumption that excited fibres, like moribund 

 fibres, are electro - negative to normal or resting fibres. The 

 fundamental data of this theory render such a proposition 

 self-evident, since in both cases there is, in Bering's sense, a 

 descending alteration of the living matter, so that action 



