204 OF THE ACTION OF BIOPLASM OF NERVE FIBRES. 



nerves should be very slow as contrasted with the 

 rate at which electricity traverses a copper wire, but 

 such a fact by no means proves that nerve energy and 

 electricity are very different. The nerve current, it 

 has been proved, traverses not more than from 100 to 

 300 feet in a second of time, while electricity, it is 

 known, travels at the rate of many thousands of 

 miles in a second. The deduction is, however, defec- 

 tive, and in many ways. I would remark — 



1. A comparison is made between the passage of 

 the nerve current along a moist tissue and the pas- 

 sage of electricity along a copper wire. 



2. It must be borne in mind that it is certain 

 that if the nerve current were electricity, it would 

 travel very slowly along such a structure as the axis 

 cylinder. 



3. The rate at which a single axis cyhnder trans- 

 mits a current of electricity has not yet been ascer- 

 tained, but this is exactly the information we need 

 before we can arrive at a correct conclusion. 



4. The rate at which electricity travels through 

 such a moist tissue as the axis cylinder has to be 

 ascertained and compared with the rate at which 

 nerve energy is known to travel. 



I will only remark further that no one has yet 

 succeeded in showing tha.t the nerve current is not 

 electricity, while a great number of well-ascertained 

 facts, especially those known in connection with the 

 electrical organs of certain of the lower animals, are 

 strongly in favour of this inference. 



253. Of the action of the bioplasm of nerve-fibres. 

 — But if conclusive proof had been afforded that the 

 nerve current was electricity, we should not even in 

 that case have ascertained the whole truth, and, in- 

 deed, should have advanced but a little way towards 

 a true explanation of nerve phenomena. Action and 

 loorh are due not to force alone, but to the machinery 

 by which the force is conditioned, and this is deter- 



