1 32 Traces of Unity in 



as 1832,* in some remarks upon the influence of the 

 nerves upon muscular contractility, this writer main- 

 tains, ' that the nervous influence which is present in re- 

 laxed muscular fibre is the only influence which the 

 nerves of volition possess over that tissue ; that its office 

 there is to restrain or control the tendency to contract 

 which is inherent in the muscle ; and that contraction 

 can only take place when by an act of the will this in- 

 fluence is suspended, the muscle being then left to act 

 according to its own innate properties ;' . . . and 

 again, ' that nervous influence is imparted to muscular 

 fibre for the purpose of restraining its "contraction, and 

 that the action of the will, and of all other disposers to 

 contraction, is simply to withdraw for a while this in- 

 fluence, so as to allow the peculiar property ~of muscular 

 fibre to show itself.' The co-existence of spasmodic 

 action with nervous debility, the efficacy of stimulants 

 as antispasmodics, and the postponement of rigor mortis 

 until all traces of nervous action have disappeared, are 

 the principal facts which are advanced in support of the 

 probability of this theory. 



A similar idea app'ears to have been also hinted at 

 by Sir Charles Bell in a lecture at the Royal College of 

 Surgeons of England, for, after premising that the ^ques- 

 tion could never be settled, the lecturer said, 'that 

 relaxation might be the act, and not contraction, and 

 that physiologists, in studying the subject, had too much 

 neglected the consideration of the mode by which 

 relaxation is effected.' This remark is preserved by Dr. 

 West in the essay to which reference has just been 

 made. 



* "On the Influence of the Nerves over Muscular Contractility," 

 "London Medical aird Surgical Jcfumal," edfted by Michael Ryan, M.D. 

 Vol. i. 1832. 



