140 CHEMICAL IDIO-MUSCULAE, PROOFS. 



bioplasts. A more difficult experiment to explain is that of 

 Professor Rutherford,* who clipped the cut end of the sciatic 

 nerve into ammonia without producing muscular contraction ; 

 but when the cut end of the same gastrocnemius was touched 

 with the same solution, immediate contraction ensued : again, 

 when the nerve end, contaminated with ammonia, was cut off, 

 and salt applied to the fresh surface of the nerve, contraction 

 took place. I can only suppose here that the ammonia 

 paralyzed the nerve, while the same quantity applied to the 

 larger moist muscle section was only sufficient to stimulate. 



We have also the experiments of Cl. Bernard with Kali 

 sulphocyan : and of Kolliker and Pelikan with upas and vera- 

 trin, which seem to show a specific vital action on the fibre 

 itself. The Rhodankalium was tried by Kiihne, and, as he 

 states, it only slightly stimulates, and then paralyzes the nerve ; 

 whereas its action on the fibre is very powerful, and when ap- 

 plied to the whole muscle causes violent jerking, speedily fol- 

 lowed by death and coagulation (rigor mortis}. On dipping a 

 portion of the muscle into a solution, that part could be killed, 

 although the nerve passing through it could still conduct 

 stimuli to a sound part. The explanation of these facts is, I 

 presume, simply that the Rhodankalium is a powerful stimulus, 

 soon causing death to the protoplasm of both the fine nerves 

 and the sarcolemma, but that the larger fibres are protected for 

 a time by the medullary sheath. 



Unless we can in some way explain the action of these 

 chemical agents, the passive theory of the muscle fibre must 

 be given up, for if they acted at all it must have been as 

 stimuli, and this implies irritability and vital action, for they 

 could not furnish force to cause physical shortening of it. 



But a new question is raised by the observation of Wundt,f 

 who states that when the constant current acts directly on the 

 muscle, the contraction lasts and is uniform during the whole 

 time between making and breaking the circuit. And it is thus 

 different from the tetanus produced by electrifying the nerve, 



* "Lancet," Jan. 21, 1871. 



f Eeichert and Dubois' " Archiv," 1859, p. 549. 



