26 



Dr. C. B. RadclifFe on Animal Electiicity. [June 16, 



causing action. As with the natural electricity of nerve and muscle, so in 

 this case, rest and charge, and action and discharge would seem to go 

 together. 



And so also with the action of Franklinic and Faradaic electricity upon 

 nerve and muscle. "With Franklinic electricity the state of rest in both 

 nerve and muscle is plainly connected with the charge, and the state of action 

 with the discharge. With Franklinic electricity, too, the positive charge is 

 found to be favourable to the continuance of the state of action, and the 

 negative charge unfavourable. And so likewise with Faradaic electricity, 

 not only as regards the connexion of the state of action with the discharge, 

 for the induced currents may be resolved into discharges, but also as regards 

 the connexion of the state of rest with the charge, for in the interval be- 

 tween the two induced currents the secondary circuit is in fact occupied by 

 a charge of electricity. 



Part II. — On Electrotonus. 



Argument. — There is reason to believe that the whole truth has not yet 

 been elicited respecting the movements of the needle of the galvanometer 

 and the modifications of the activity of the nerve which are characteristic 

 of electrotonus. 



The movements of the needle of the galvanometer characterizing electro- 

 tonus appear to be due, not, as is commonly supposed, to modifications of 

 the nerve-current consequent upon the action of the voltaic current, but to 

 the passage through the coil of the galvanometer of streams of free electri- 

 city, positive or negative, as the case may be, from the voltaic pole which 

 happens to be nearest to the coil, — of free positive electricity from the 

 positive pole in anelectrotonus, of free negative electricity from the negative 

 pole in cathelectrotonus. They cannot, so it is argued, be due to modifica- 

 tions of the nerve- current consequent upon the action of the voltaic current, 

 because the same movements continue when there is no nerve-current to 

 be thus modified, as when a dead nerve is used in place of a living nerve, 

 or even when other bodies are substituted for nerve ; they may, so it is 

 suggested, be due to streams of free electricity passing through the coil of 

 the galvanometer from the nearest voltaic pole, because such streams do 

 pass in this direction, and because streams of free electricity from a 

 frictional machine so passed give rise to similar movements, — the stream of 

 positive electricity to the movement of anelectrotonus, the stream of 

 negative electricity to that of cathelectrotonus. This is the view taken of 

 the movements of the needle of the galvanometer characterizing electro- 

 tonus. 



A different conclusion to that commonly held is also thought to be 

 necessary respecting the modifications of the activity of the nerve in elec- 

 trotonus. Instead of this activity being suspended in anelectrotonus and 

 exalted in cathelectrotonus, the facts, many of them new, are, when fully 

 realized, found to show that this suspension is met with, not in anelectro- 



