MEDICAL BATTERIES. 



87 



The directions given by Remak for obtaining the tetanic con- 

 traction of a muscle en masse teach nothing about the points of 

 emergence and of immersion of the nerves ; and they cannot even 

 serve to supply a general rule. Thus, according to him, in order 

 to make a muscle contract en masse, it is necessary to place one 

 rheophore on a jyoint of the border of the muscle toivards tvhich the 

 entrance of its nervous trunk occurs. If this principle will hold 

 good for some muscles, it will not for many others. In support of 

 my assertion, t will take as an example one of the muscles which 

 it is said may be made to contract by this procedure — the deltoid. 

 On whatever point of the border of that muscle we apply the 

 rheophores, we obtain only partial contractions ; since, as the place 

 of entry of the nerve is at the union of the upper third of the 

 muscle with the lower two-thirds, and of the posterior third with 

 the anterior two-thirds, the rheophores can only encounter its final 

 ramifications. The principle of Remak is, on the contrary, appli- 

 cable to the trapezius. The method that he employs to make 



When, at that s(fance, I was seen to 

 produce contraction en mas^e of the ser- 

 ratus maguus, by placing the rheoj^hores 

 on the side of the chest, by the anterior 

 border of the latissimus dorsi, was it 

 necessary to exphxin that the rheophores 

 were in relation with the nerve of the 

 serratus magnns ? When the same rheo- 

 phores were placed at the junctiu'e of the 

 middle and lower thirds of the margin 

 of the trapezius, was it necessary to say 

 to those professors that I was then 

 exciting the external branch of the 

 spinal nerve from the cervical plexus ? 

 The contraction en masse was sufficient 

 to show them wliat was done. This 

 method of muscular electrization by the 

 intermediation of the nerves w^as the 

 indirect muscular faradization that I had 

 described in a general manner, in my 

 writings and my experimental se'ances, 

 without entering into details about the 

 points of emergence and immersion of 

 the motor nerves. Again, when, during 

 the same se'anre, I wished to obtain 

 isolated contraction of the jjortions of the 

 trapezius which are physiologically dis- 

 tinct muscles, they saw me avoid, as 

 much as possible, the points of entrance 

 of nerves, and place the rheophores in 

 succession on each of the parts that form 

 what I have called the respiratory (cla- 

 vicular), the elevator, or the adductor, 

 portion of the trapezius. 



During several hours that the stance 

 lasted, Remak saw me jiroduce, in suc- 

 cession, contraction of a large niunber of 

 muscles en ma^se, and of separate fasci- 



culi — the former by exciting their ner- 

 vous trunks, the latter by jdacing the 

 rheophores upon them, beyond the points 

 of immersion of the nerves. This great 

 critic, however, who has witnessed the 

 results that I obtained, and has made 

 them the subject of eulogy, obtained no 

 glimpse of the particidar methods that 

 allowed me to obtain them ! With whom 

 is the blame? Did I trust too much to 

 his anatomical knowledge ? Had micro- 

 scopic anatomy caused him to forget that 

 which can be seen with the naked eye ? 

 Such seems to be the only solution of the 

 enigma. 



Remak, who has thus represented me 

 as a kind of prestigiator, whose dex- 

 terity he ]iraises, but who preserves his 

 secrets from him, saj's again, " It must 

 equally be admitted that he (M. Du- 

 chenne) has not yet perfectly fixed upon 

 the anatomical conditions of the residts 

 that he obtains ; and that he owes his 

 knowledge of the aforesaid points (the 

 jjoints of election on which the rheojihores 

 should be placed) jierhaps to chance or 

 rather to the trials by which he has 

 arrived at his method." Then Remak, 

 for the honour of science, sets himself to 

 work, and discovers that these famous 

 23oints of election are the points of entry 

 of the muscular nerves. Unfortunately 

 for the priority of this discovery, the 

 experiments that he adduces to explain 

 the anatomical reasons for these points 

 of election are precisely those that I 

 performed before his eyes, at the se'ance 

 at which he was present in 1852. 



