OHAP. IX. MUSOULAE AND NERVOUS TISSUE. 95 



trary direction to that of the muscular or nerve 

 current. As the results did not indicate any increase, 

 or even any decided diminution in the muscular or 

 nerve current, and were in many respects similar to 

 those I have already related with the inverse current, 

 they need not be detailed. 



Employing litmus paper to test the indications of 

 the two surfaces of the fibre in contact with the 

 electrodes, the effects were the same ; there was no 

 distinct acid or alkaline deposit on either of the two 

 surfaces. The tissues soon became dry. 



The results in all these experiments, after the 

 current had passed for some time through the nerve 

 or muscle, and especially when more than one cell 

 was employed, evidently arose from the electro- 

 chemical actions set up in the moist animal sub- 

 stances, by means of the electric current employed 

 destroying the conditions necessary for the existence 

 of the muscular or nerve current, and setting up new 

 actions. It is extremely doubtful whether the cur- 

 rent traversed the fibre*; it might have been con- 

 ducted by the surface alone ; and, in considering the 

 action of the current upon the tissiie, it is not diffi- 

 cult to perceive that its effect (its mode of action) 

 would be not that of increasing the electrical state of 

 the tissues, but more of a disorganizing action. What 

 is evidently required is, to induce the negative elec- 

 trical state of the fibre, which constitutes its polarized 



^ Maiteucoi believes that the current is conducted by the 

 liquid part of the nerve. Phil. Trans. 1850, p. i. p. 388. 



