94 OF VITAL MOTION. 



analogy. The organization and the mode of action 

 alike present many similarities. There is nothing 

 which favours or suspends muscular contraction which 

 does not operate in the same manner upon the elec- 

 trical discharge. It has been shown indeed, that when 

 the fish is acted upon by galvanism, the discharge 

 accompanies the closure of the circuit when the cur- 

 rent passes along the nerve towards the electrical 

 organ, and the disruption when passed in a contrary 

 direction. On the strength of this analogy, therefore, 

 we may reason as to the operation of mechanical irri- 

 tation in muscle, and as we know that a discharge is 

 produced by irritating the electric organ, we may infer 

 that there is a similar, though less sensible discharge 

 when a muscle is subjected to the same treatment. 



The return of the muscle to the relaxed state after 

 contraction, when the vascular and nervous systems 

 retain their integrity, is readily ascribed to the great 

 molecular changes which these involve. Under these 

 circumstances the generation of force is as necessary 

 and inevitable as in a galvanic apparatus where the 

 plates and fluids are in contact; and it is easy to 

 understand that the amount will be altogether im- 

 measurable. When the muscle is detached from the 

 body, and the flow of blood and nervous power 

 arrested, it is still possible to suppose a free extrica- 

 tion of electricity, for the atmospheric influences will 

 induce very perceptible changes. It is not, indeed, as 



