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other way injure a nerve which is diftriU 
buted upon a certain mufcle, this mufcle 
becomes paralytic and incapable of per- 
forming its office. 
It has been faid, that the fame accident 
conftantly takes place upon tying or cut¬ 
ting the arteries of mufcles, but this af- 
fertion has been proved to be void of foun¬ 
dation by the obfervations of Kaaw Boer- 
haave, Languifh, Pozzi, and feveral others. 
(See Haller, Phyf. T. iii. lib. xi. f. 3.) 
If palfy does fometimes take place, it 
is not infiantaneoufly, as is the cafe when 
the nerve is tied, but increafes flowly, 
and therefore we may fay that fomething 
Is wanting to the integrity of the mufcu- 
lar fibre, or that the nerves are deprived 
of this fubfiance, which is feparated by 
the fmall arteries, and without which they 
cannot produce the phenomena of electri¬ 
city. There are fome animals which pof- 
fefs exquifite irritability, and which, not- 
withfianding, 
