330 THE ANIMA.L AS A PRIME MOVER. 



mandate of the will to the storage battery of the animal at substan- 

 tially the same rate that other nerve actions are propagated. 1 He 

 sums up his facts in a form which suits our present purpose well. 2 

 He concludes : 



(1) The rapidity of the nervous agent is identical in the torpedo and 

 the frog affected by the electric discharge. 



(2) "Lost time" exists and has the same measure in the electrical 

 apparatus of the torpedo and in muscle, and the same is true of its 

 endurance. 



(3) The duration of the torpedo's discharge is about the same as the 

 duration of the shock in the case of the electrified frog. 



(4) This period is about one-seventh of a second. 



Davy produced all the phenomena of voltaic electricity from the vital 

 organism; Linari and Matteucci similarly proved its identity, in action 

 and effects, with static electricity and provoked the electric spark from 

 the animal. If the idea of Fritsch is correct that the electrical gener- 

 ating and storage organs of the creature are derived from the skin, it 

 would seem very probable also that the source of energy transforma- 

 tion from potential to the kinetic, or from stored forms to motor forms, 

 may be found in or under the cuticle. Bayliss, Bradford, and others, 

 however, attribute the currents observed in animals to the flow of 

 fluids, perhaps to simple friction; while Biedermann thinks the kata- 

 bolic action, breaking down tissue, is the source of the current passing 

 inward, and the anabolic action, constructing tissue, is the cause 

 of the reverse current. If the machine be in any degree electro- 

 dynamic, this is a substitution of cause for effect. 



Humboldt's account of the employment by the Indians of Bastro 

 de Abaso of wild horses in capturing the gymnotns, at the sacrifice 

 of an occasional horse by drowning, after being disabled by the 

 shocks administered by the enraged gyinnotus, and his statement that 

 he himself had received more powerful shocks than he had ever received 

 from the largest Leyden jars, give some idea of the vigor as well as of 

 the character of animal electricity. His experiments with Gay-Lussac, 

 and those of Davy, Becquerel, Breschet, and others, show it to be capa- 

 ble of performing every feat and exhibiting every phenomenon famil- 

 iar to us as the result of voltaic action at high tension. 



All research to date proves: 



(1) That the electrical current in the animal system is produced for 

 the purpose of effecting energy transformations of, as yet, undetermined 

 character and extent. 



(2) That it is, in the electric fishes at least, developed at will in 

 quantity demanded for its intended work, as in other displays of 

 energy, up to the limit of the nerve power of the individual. 



(3) That in all its characteristics it is similar to, if not identical with, 



1 Journal de l'anatomie et de la physiologie, 1872. 



2 Animal mechanism, page 57. 



