68 CURRENT FORCE CHAP. VI. §. n. 



Sect. II. On the Manifestation of Current Force during 

 Nutrition in the Nervous Tissue. 



Du Bois Betmokd was the first to shew that the 

 nervous fibre, like the muscular fibre, presented an 

 electrical condition ; the external or longitudinal 

 surface being positive to the divided surface, pro- 

 ducing the so-called nerve current, when the two 

 surfaces are formed into a circuit with the galva- 

 nometer. 



The results that I had obtained in regard to the 

 muscular tissue led me to make inquiries respecting 

 the nervous tissue ; and for this purpose, after 

 having exposed the brain, I inserted one of the 

 electrodes into the substance of the brain, and the 

 other into the internal jugular vein; the effects 

 upon the needle were very decided and manifest. 

 The needle advanced from 10° to 80° or more, the 

 electrode in contact with the blood being positive to 

 the other in the brain. 



Matteucci* relates some experiments performed 

 by MM. Paoinotti and Puccinotti, and by himself, 

 in which the electrodes were inserted one into the 

 brain, the other into the muscles. He says, " La 

 deviation obtenu dans la premiere immersion a ete 

 dirige du cerveau aux muscles dans I'animal. 

 L'intensite du courant est tres-variable : j'ai obtenu 

 quelquefois 80° et meme davantage, et quelquefois 

 10° a 15°, et toujours dans la premiere immersion." 



' Traitt des Ph^nom&nes Electro-Physiologiques, p. 121, 



