88 or VITAL MOTION. 



When, therefore, the electric influence from the pile 

 is transmitted through the limb in question, from the 

 thigh towards the foot, the direction must oppose the 

 natural current of the limb ; and in this case we must 

 suppose that the intensity of the current will suffer 

 diminution on the completion of the circuit. The 

 powerful contraction, therefore, which takes place 

 under these circumstances, if it be connected with the 

 electricity at all, must be the consequence of the 

 neutralization or diminution, and not of the intensifi- 

 cation of the agent. Nor is it any objection -to this 

 view that a -slight contraction should take place on the 

 disruption of the circuit, as may be seen if we call to 

 mind the nervous conformation of the limb with which 

 we have to do. It is provided with a nerve of mixed 

 fibres, of which some convey the peculiar influence 

 with which they are charged from the thigh to the 

 foot, and others in a contrary direction, from the foot 

 to the thigh. During the passage of the electricity, 

 therefore, we may suppose the nervous current (if we 

 may so speak) to have been neutralized in the fibres 

 which opposed the electric current, and to have been 

 intensified in the others which coincided; for there is 

 no doubt that there is an affinity and possibility of 

 reaction between the two agents. There are fibres, 

 therefore, as we may suppose, where the molecular 

 activity would be stimulated during the passage of the 

 electric current, and where the increased activity must 



