Maiteucct’s Lectures on Living Beings, 391 
whose electric state we wish to examine, in contact with two 
different and sufficiently distant points of the nervous filament of 
the galvanoscopic frog.’ 
ectric current in muscles.—Furnished with a frog, thus 
prepared, I take a living animal, a pigeon for example, slightly 
cut its pectoral muscle, and apply the extremity of the nerve to the 
bottom of the wound, and another portion of the nerve to the lips 
of the wound, or better still to the external surface of the muscle ; 
the frog continually contracts. This experiment clearly demon- 
strates the presence of an electrical current. e phenomenon wit- 
nessed in the pigeon takes place in every other animal, whether 
warm or cold blooded. I have recently proved that the galvano- 
scopic frog gives the same signs when we operate upon a wound 
made in the muscle of aman. But it is necessary to have recourse 
to the galvanometer to place beyond doubt the existence and 
character of this current. I expose the pectoral muscle of a living 
pigeon, [ make a wound in it, and quickly convey the two plati- 
hum extremities of a very delicate galvanometer, the one to the 
external surface of the muscle, the other to the interior of the 
wound. The needle instantly deviates from 15° to 20° and 
€ven more; thus demonstrating the existence of a current, whose 
direction is from the internal part of the muscle to the surface of 
same muscle,’ 
‘ The muscular pile.—I take five or six: frogs, pared after 
the manner (already mentioned) of Galvani; I cut them in halves, 
Separate the thighs from the legs by disarticulation, and divide 
the thighs transversely into two parts. I thus obtain a certain 
Humber of the halves of thighs, from among which I select those 
only which belong to the lower portion; I arrange this series of 
demi-thighs upon. a vamished tray, Fig: i. 
ha i ————— 
et Comat be if. 
3 esse ‘ 
Contact with the internal surface of the " 
Preceding. Here then we have a pile of demi-thighs of frogs, 
of which one extremity is formed by the external surface of the 
Muscle, the other by the internal surface. I fill the two cups 
with a weak saline solution, or even with distilled water; plunge 
Into them the two extremities of the galvanometer, and immedi- 
ately a deviation of the needle is seen, which, before the immer- 
Sion of these conductors, was at 0°. Thus the presence of an 
