136 BEALE'S ELECTRO-MOTOR THEORY. 



Finally, that there is no contractile tissue in any animal, from 

 the highest to the lowest, that is not furnished with nerves 

 i.e., contractile tissue proper not formless protoplasm or cilia, 

 exhibiting movements. "And as I have detected nerves in 

 every form of contractile tissue that I have examined, I think 

 it right to conclude that contractile textures are invariably 

 associated with nerves " (Beale's " Biopl., 7 ' p. 237). 



Dr. Beale does not profess to be electrician enough to explain 

 the exact mode in which the contraction is brought about, but 

 is satisfied by showing the existence of a mechanism by which 

 work may be done by induction from a current in closed circuits. 

 " They (the nerves) are certainly not connected in any way 

 either with the nucleus or with the contractile tissue of the 

 muscular fibre. They cross the fibre either obliquely or at right 

 angles ; and oftentimes a nerve fibre runs for some distance 

 parallel with the muscular fibre. The influence, therefore, ex- 

 erted by the nerve fibre cannot depend upon any continuity of 

 texture between it and the contractile tissue, but is doubtless 

 due to the passage of a current through the nerve, which de- 

 termines a temporary alteration in the relations to one another 

 of the particles of which the contractile tissue consists" 

 (" BiopL," p. 239). 



This remarkable theory, which is as yet opposed to 

 the great majority of the prevailing opinions, demands 

 all attention, and invites thorough and searching 

 criticism. 



It is obvious that the old question of the inherent 

 irritability of the muscular- fibre is again raised. Not 

 in the old form, in which the faculty of contracting 

 was supposed to be communicated from the central 

 nervous system, for that has long been set at rest, but 

 whether each individual primitive bundle, of which 

 the muscle as a whole is composed, is idio-muscular 

 or nervo-muscular, in the language of Schiff, adopted 



