MEDICAL BATTERIES. 77 



bouring fibres remaiuing relaxed. It follows that the excitation 

 of the iQUScle only occurs at the points which are brought into 

 connection with the rheophores. 



(6). My researches have shown me that, under the influence of 

 an apparatus of strong tension, the electricity penetrates deeply 

 into the tissues. The following observations support this pro- 

 position. In lead-palsy, as I shall have occasion to show, certain 

 muscles of the posterior region of the forearm become atrophied, 

 and do not contract under the influence of faradization. If the 

 tension of the current be moderate, we do not see any movement 

 of the limb Avhen the rheophores are placed over the paralysed 

 muscles ; if the tension of the current be very great, we see that 

 the muscles situated beneath those paralysed are thrown into con- 

 traction. In the former case, the electric excitation has been 

 limited to the paralysed muscles ; in the latter, it has penetrated 

 these muscles to act on those covered by them. In very fat or 

 oedematous persons electricity does not reach the muscles at all, 

 unless by the aid of a current of strong tension. It follows, from 

 these facts that, in the practice of direct muscular faradization, the 

 tension of the current should be proportioned to the thickness 

 both of the muscle to be excited and of the tissues to be traversed. 



It is well understood that in all these experiments care must be 

 taken not to excite the muscular nerves ; either by placing the rheo- 

 phores at a distance from their emergence or their immersion ; or, 

 where the nerves cannot be avoided, by operating with a current of 

 moderate tension. In fact, since the moist rheophores are only 

 placed in relation with the surfaces of the muscles, and since 

 the muscular nerves enter at the deep surfaces of all superficial 

 muscles, it is certain that the contractions produced by a moderate 

 current are not excited through the medium of nerve agency. 



(c). When the moist rheophores are applied to points corre- 

 sponding to the surface of a muscle, the excitation produced by the 

 electric recompositions acts simultaneously upon all the anatomical 

 elements (muscular fibres, motor, sensitive, and ganglionic nervous 

 filaments, arteries and veins) which enter into the composition of 

 the portion of muscle excited ; while, if the contraction be pro- 

 duced indirectly, that is to say, by placing the rheophores over 

 the motor-nerve trunk, at a distance from the muscle to be 

 excited, only the muscular fibres are influenced. Consequently, 

 the direct faradization of a muscle is not complete, even when its 

 contraction en masse has been produced by the excitation of its 

 nerve, if the rheophores have not been moved over all the points 

 corresponding to the surface of the muscle. 



Need I add that, in the living subject, when the muscles are 



