90 OF VITAL MOTION. 



eventually ; for in this instance, as in the other, we 

 may argue that it is owing to a neutralization of 

 motive influence in the nervous fibres, the molecular 

 arrangement of which is opposed to the electric cur- 

 rent; for all the arguments in favour of this view 

 which were applicable then, are so now. 



Granting, therefore, the existence of a definite 

 electric current in this limb, and the nerve of mixed 

 fibres, it seems necessary to suppose that there is a 

 certain annihilation of electric influence whenever 

 contraction takes place in these muscles. 



In the original experiment of Galvani, also, in which 

 contraction is excited in a frog's limb that is allowed 

 to remain connected with the trunk only by the 

 sciatic nerve, whenever the foot is brought in contact 

 with the lumbar plexus, it is possible to meet with 

 the same explanation. In this case, indeed, it is 

 necessary to suppose that the electric current in the 

 limb is neutralized when the opposite poles are brought 

 in contact, whether this be by bending the limb upon 

 itself, as Galvani did, or by employing a conductor of 

 metal or moist paper. 



The results of which we have been speaking are 

 rendered more complicated, when the limb which is 

 experimented upon is allowed to remain in connexion 

 with the living animal by removing the pelvis without 

 destroying the nerves. Under these circumstances 

 the muscles of the loins contract powerfully at the 



