Volume 1

Les processus généraux / par A. Chantemesse et W.W. Podwyssotsky.

  • Chantemesse, André, 1851-1919
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Les processus généraux / par A. Chantemesse et W.W. Podwyssotsky. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/544
    PREFACE From the very beginning of Experimental Physiology, the mar- vellous action of electrical currents upon excitable animal tissues, and the electrical forces winch, under certain conditions, proceed from these tissues themselves, hâve again and again attracted the attention of scientific men, and hâve given rise to a vast number of experiments, which at the présent day are still being prosecuted in ail directions. This is accounted for by the great significance at first attributed to the action of electrical forces in the living organism. And at a later period, when these anticipations had not been fully realised, and the desired goal of a “ physical ” explanation of muscular contraction, nerve conductivity, etc., seemed farther off than ever, the multitude of facts meantime discovered, together with the exactness of the methods of observa- tion, and the conviction that perseverance in the familial’ path must eventually lead to the solution of some at least of the countless problems of living matter, spurred the student on to renewed endeavour. Moreover, there was a growing desire to establish the many and successful applications of electricity in clinical medicine on a firm and secure basis, and to found an exact science of electro-therapeutics. Thus it lias corne about that the literature of Electro-Physiology, in a wide sense, lias swollen to a bulk that practically debars any student who is not a specialist from critical acquaintance with it.