On Signor Carlo Matteucciʼs letter to H. Bence Jones : editor of an abstract of Dr. Bois-Reymondʼs Researches in animal electricity / by Emil Du Bois-Reymond.

  • Emil du Bois-Reymond
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On Signor Carlo Matteucciʼs letter to H. Bence Jones : editor of an abstract of Dr. Bois-Reymondʼs Researches in animal electricity / by Emil Du Bois-Reymond. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    first in which he gave an account of the law of the muscular current. But the interior and the surface of the muscle, botli forming part of the muscle, evidently the direction of the current in the muscle is not unequivocally determined even in that passage. In February, 1842, Signer Matteucci repeated the same statement, adding, however, some details:— De tons les resuUats ohteniis siir les grenouilles et sur des animaux a saru/ chcmd, on pent tirer cette conclusion : P Qne la grenouille et les animaux a sang cliaud donnent tin courant electrique lorsque la partie interne d'mie masse musculaire et sa surface sont mises en communication avec un arc conducteur; 2° Que le nerf qui aptpartient a une masse musculaire, et tout le systeme nerveux en general, peuvent faire I'office de la partie interne d'un muscle dans la production de ce courant; 3° Que le courant est dirige, dans Vanimal, de l'interieur du muscle ou de son nerf a sa sur- face ou a son tendon.* Thus far, Signer Matteucci's new statements were known to me when I published the paper above-mentioned, in which, of course, they are duly quoted and even discussed at length. These statements were literally taken from an extensive paper, which was afterwards printed at full length in the second volume of the Archives de I'Electricite, edited by M. de la E-ive, but was not published before the 3rd of November, 1842. Signer Matteucci in this paper first described that experimental arrangement which he has since called ^^pile musculaire^'' and which he still considers as most appropriate for the demonstra- tion of the electric properties of muscles. The pile musculaire consists of a certain number up to twenty thighs of frogs, roughly cut across, and disposed in the manner represented in the annexed diagram. By connecting the two ends of the Fig. a. case of the Muscular Currmit observed hy Siptor MaUeucci, up io Januari/, Published November, 1842.]