Dynamics of nerve & muscle / by Charles Bland Radcliffe.

  • Radcliffe, Charles Bland.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dynamics of nerve & muscle / by Charles Bland Radcliffe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    lumbar nerves and the crural muscles* Galvani, as was his wont, explained these contractions by suppos- ing that the conducting arc had served to discharge animal electricity, and that the contractions were the result of the discharge. Volta, on the other hand, was of opinion that the electricity producing these contractions originated in certain reactions between the silver and copper portions of the conducting arc; and he was not shaken in this view by what he did afterwards, for, wishing to confirm it, he began a series of investigations which ended in the discovery of the voltaic pile and battery—a discovery which filled all minds with wonder, and for a long time afterwards diverted attention altogether from the consideration of the claims of animal electricity. In the meantime, however, while Volta was demonstrat- ing the existence of that electricity which originates in the reaction of heterogeneous bodies, and which is now known as voltaic electricity, Galvani continued his search after animal electricity, and made many important discoveries as he went along. He dis- covered, among other things, that a galvanoscopic frog would contract without the help of a conducting arc composed of heterogeneous metals. He dis- covered not only that these contractions would happen when this arc was composed of a single metal, but also that an arc composed of muscle or nerve would answer the same purpose as the metallic arc. He also discovered that the limb of a galvanoscopic frog, of which the nerve had been divided high up in the * The galvanoscopic frog was prepared from the hinder half of the animal, by stripping off the skin, and cutting away all the parts between the thighs and the fragment of the spine, except the principal nerves.