2 THE ACTIVE FORCES OF LIVING ORGANISMS 



negativity of oxygen — Muscular contraction is a process of 

 deoxidation — Conditions most favourable to anabolism — 

 The contractility of nerve-cells — Variations in the tension of 

 the ether as the cause of the current of action in a nerve-fibre 

 — The influence of functional activity on metabolism — The 

 influence of contraction and expansion on oxidation — The 

 nature of the nervous impulse — Electrical vibration is 

 always connected with chemical or with molecular vibra- 

 tion — The three elements — Electrical phenomena — Elec- 

 tricity intensifies the effect of the conditions under which it 

 is administered — Electricity as an almost neutral agency — 

 The effects of high altitudes — Mountain sickness — The chief 

 points — The importance of the nervous factor — The relative 

 diminution of carbonic acid and oxygen in the blood — The 

 effect of variations in the relative amount of these gases — 

 Effects of diminished atmospheric pressure — Diminution 

 of chemical intensity in high altitudes — Observations on 

 individuals in the Alps — Experiment to demonstrate the 

 effect of carbonic acid on the respiratory movements — The 

 composition of the blood in high altitudes — The influence 

 of a place may be transmitted through the ether — Some 

 results of massage — Contractility — The influence of pre- 

 existing conditions — Application of the theory of the ethereal 

 nature of electricity to physiology — Views of French physio- 

 logists on electro-motory action — The transport of atoms ia 

 an electrical cell and in the body — Absorption in the amceba 

 — The concatenation of automatic actions and reactions in 

 digestion — Chemical action as a cause of nervous impulses 

 — Secretory or chemico-sensory nerves in the submaxillary 

 gland — Direct stimulation of the chemical processes — Rela- 

 tive independence of electro-chemical action and nervous 

 action in metabohsm — Difference between secretory action 

 in the submaxillary gland and in the stomach — All nerves 

 and nerve-cells are concerned in chemical action — Heat and 

 cold in their relation to nervous action and metabohsm. 



Matter and force are the finite elements into which 

 any substance, whatsoever be its nature, is divisible. 

 Hitherto in biological science attention has been so 



