PHILOSOPHICAL 
TRANSACTIONS. 
I. The Croonian Lecture. On the Irritability of Nerves. By 
Everard Home, Esq. F. R. S. 
Read November 20, 1800. 
The nerves have been hitherto considered as chords that have 
no powers of contraction within themselves, but only serving as 
a medium, by means of which the influence of the brain may 
be communicated to the muscles, and the impressions made 
upon different parts of the body conveyed to the brain. 
The difficulties which attend every attempt to investigate the 
real state of the nerves in the living body, and the impossibility 
of acquiring any information upon this subject after death, may 
be urged in excuse for this opinion having been so universally 
received, since it will be found, from the following experiments 
and observations, to be void of foundation. 
The only means by which any knowledge respecting the 
irritability of nerves can be procured, must be from the ope- 
rations in surgery performed upon nerves, either in a healthy 
state, or under the influence of disease; or from experiments 
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