66 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



change in the living part. But in muscle, as well as 

 other irritable and contractile tissues in animals, the 

 manifestation of electromotive force is inseparably- 

 connected with the special function of the tissue 

 i.e., with contraction, the connexion being of such a 

 nature, that the electromotive force expresses, not the 

 work actually done at any given moment, but the 

 capacity for work. Thus, so long as the muscle lives, 

 its electromotive force is found to be on the whole 

 proportioned to its vigour. As it gradually loses its 

 vitality, its power of contracting and its electro- 

 motive force disappear pari passu. When it contracts, 

 the manifestation of electromotive force diminishes 

 in proportion to the degree of contraction. But it is 

 to be borne in mind that, although, when the muscle 

 or the leaf contracts, electromotive force disappears 

 and work is done, there is no reason for supposing 

 that there is any conversion of the one effect into the 

 other, or that the source of the force exercised by the 

 organ in contracting is electrical." 



Dr. Burdon Sanderson then proceeded by a series 

 of experiments to demonstrate the correspondence 

 between the electrical phenomena which accompany 

 muscular contraction and those which are associated 

 with the closing of the Dionoea leaf. 1 



1 Lecture by Dr. Burdon Sanderson at Royal Institution, 

 June 5th, 1874 ; " Gardener's Chronicle," June 27th, 1874. 



