OHAP.X. §. I. DUBING MUSCDLAB OONTBAOTION. 123 



of any electro-physiological problem experimentally ; 

 for not only has he to satisfy, from the mixed cha- 

 racter of the inquiry, the extreme views of the 

 physicist on the one hand, and those of the phy- 

 siologist on the other, but they also afford the 

 indolent inquirer a ready means of apparent refu- 

 tation, and a powerful weapon to the controversialist. 

 That these opinions are not ill-founded might be 

 easily shewn i^. Feeling the importance of basing 

 the conclusions in these inquiries upon strictly 

 experimental evidence, in discussing the different 

 views that may be entertained in regard to the 

 evidence upon which the experiments justify us in 

 concluding that some force is evolved during mus- 

 cular contraction, I shall confine my observations to 

 the experimental results obtained by Matteucci and 

 Dv Bois Eeimond, and endeavour to avoid every 

 thing of a purely. controversial character. 



Matteucci' has proved, and shewn by means of 

 the galvanoscopic frog, that during muscular con- 

 traction the muscles of the galvanoscopic frog may 

 be excited to contract, and that for this purpose it is 



' Strange to say, it has been urged, that the time has not yet 

 arrived for the prosecution of these experiments. This is the 

 only tangible ohjeotiou that the author has yet had an oppor- 

 tunity of refuting. That objections may be started he is per- 

 fectly convinced ; but as the inquiry professes to be experimental, 

 the objections must be supported by experimental evidence 

 befqre he can notice them. 



" Phil. Trans. 1850. Ninth Series. Annates de Chimie et de 

 Physique, Juin, 1886. 



