52 THE ACTIVE FORCES OF LIVING ORGANISMS 



force, but one which contributes in a very real and 

 essential manner to the development of every kind of 

 physiological action. The passage of an electrical 

 current along a nerve fibre usually produces, it is 

 true, no specific form of sensation, whilst even the 

 electrification of parts of the cerebral cortex frequently 

 fails to yield any result of a functional order. If, 

 therefore, electricity, as it seems probable, does 

 play an essential part in nervous action, it can only 

 be, one would think, because the ether (regarding 

 electricity as ether in motion) takes upon itself, for 

 a certain distance, at any rate, the character of the 

 molecular or chemical action, which is the primary 

 origin of the nervous impulse, subsequent modifica- 

 tions always bearing a certain relation to it. 



Many other curious phenomena of an electrical 

 order pass daily before our eyes. Women's hair, 

 when combed, will often stand off from the head, 

 as though momentarily stiffened, and will crackle 

 when the comb passes through it. The cat which 

 rubs itself caressingly against your leg probably finds 

 its enjoyment in a flow of electricity, by which the 

 tension of the spinal centres is relieved and metabolism 

 stimulated. Some authors, it is said, cannot work 

 successfully unless they have a cat about them, which 

 from time to time they stroke. That part of massage 

 which is termed effleurage — that is to say, the light 

 rubbing of the skin — gives rise, especially when applied 

 to the back and spinal column, to a drowsy relaxation 

 precisely similar to that usually produced by electrical 



