On animal electricity : being an abstract of the discoveries of Emil Du Bois-Reymond / edited by H. Bence Jones.

Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On animal electricity : being an abstract of the discoveries of Emil Du Bois-Reymond / edited by H. Bence Jones. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    tromotive power is always proportioned to the mechanical power of the tissue. 9. Other animal tissues may, indeed, produce electromotive action : but it is neither so strong as the action of the nerves and muscles nor so re- gular ; nor does it vanish with the vital proper- ties of the tissues ; nor does it, lastly, undergo those sudden variations of intensity and direc- tion, which may be thus briefly stated :— 10. The current in muscles when in the act of contraction, and in nerves when conveying mo- tion or sensation, undergoes a sudden and great negative variation of its intensity. 11. Muscles inactive from the contrary action of the parelectronomic layer, when contracting become active in the opposite direction to that which muscles in a state of rest exhibit. Hence it must be concluded that the electromotive force of the parelectronomic layer remains con- stant in the act of contraction. 12. The negative variation of the muscular current is not a permanent one during perma- nent contractions. It consists rather of a rapidly following succession of single and sudden varia- tions of the intensity.