292 Explanation of Inheritance 
capable of being produced and deposited solely by a 
current of a definite intensity or specificity, and at the 
same time capable of producing, by its decomposition, 
this current only, of the same intensity or specificity i is 
that of the charge. This accumulator, then, will discharge 
itself and produce this current as often as its nervo-motive 
force, which we may still call E, is sufficiently great to 
overcome the respective resistance, according to the 
equation: E=iR. 
Finally, we can assume that the magnitude of this 
nervo-motive force, is proportional to the quantity or 
mass of the substance which has been gradually deposited 
and accumulated, as if the successive infinitesimal deposits 
of this substance were innumerable little Leyden jars ar- 
ranged in serial order. Then the greater the mass of 
the specific substance of this nervous accumulator the 
greater in proportion will be the resistance which its dis- 
charge will be able to overcome. At the same time, this 
accumulator, capable of surmounting by its current of a 
fixed intensity i a given resistance R, will be capable also 
of surmounting every other resistance less great than R; 
for to effect that, it will suffice that it be not the total 
quantity of material at disposal that enters into action, 
but only a portion more or less large, so as to furnish for 
each resistance R’<R, the nervo-motor force E’<E, 
given by the formula: 
Ey =iR? 
Suppose now that the discharge of this accumulator 
on account of the ubication or the mode of its insertion, 
is able to flow only upon a definite point of a given plexus 
traversed along its meshes by as many currents of the 
most diverse specificities capable of combining one with 
