CHAP. XI. NEEVE FOECE. 135 



essential for nerve action as well as for muscular 

 action. Current force is not manifested when the 

 electrodes are placed at the extremities of a nerve, 

 the nerve being in a quiescent state ; and this fact 

 does not prove that the force transmitted by the 

 nerve during nerve action is not current force. The 

 real question therefore is, whether during nerve 

 action, during the passage of nerve force along a 

 nerve, current force is manifested or not. We must 

 take care, however, and hear in mind, that the term 

 nerve current may be employed to express two distinct 

 ideas : Is*, The electric current manifested in the 

 nerve, and which indicates the electric condition of 

 tissue; and, Qnd, The force — nerve force— which is 

 transmitted along a nerve during nerve action. 



Vavasseue* and Beeandi^ and David' appear to 

 have obtained some results in their experiments 

 when the electrodes of a galvanometer were inserted 

 into different parts of a nerve. These experiments, 

 however, were undertaken prior to the knowledge of 

 the existence of the nerve current, and the effects 

 then observed may have been due to the electrodes 

 having been placed on different parts of a nerve, the 

 result being the so-called nerve current of Dn Bois 

 Betmoni). 



The experiments of Paginotti and Puccinotti, 

 repeated and confirmed by Matteccci, must not be 

 passed over. These inquirers inserted one electrode 



» Mulleb's Elements of Physiology; translated by Baly. 

 Second Edition, vol. i. p. 685. 



