Experiments on the Nervous System with Opium and Metalline Substances: Made Chiefly with the View of Determining the Nature and Effects of Animal ElectricityMonro, Alexander
Science
Experiments on the Nervous System with Opium and Metalline Substances: Made Chiefly with the View of Determining the Nature and Effects of Animal Electricity
Monro, Alexander
Electrophysiology -- Early works to 1800; Frogs -- Physiology; Nervous system -- Experiments -- Early works to 1800
IF a piece of perforated dry Paper is placed between the gold Probe and
the Muscles, there will be no convulsions; but wet Paper interposed
does not prevent the convulsions.
ON separating the gold Probe from the Muscles there are no convulsions.
3. IF, after the Animal and Metals are placed as above described, the
joining of the two Legs at the Ossa Pubis is cut, that Leg only will be
convulsed with which the gold is in contact.
4. THE Spine of the Frog with the Zinc being placed on one glass, and
the Legs on another glass, if the gold, supported by one hand, which
we shall call the Right Hand, be applied to the Zinc alone, and not to
the Legs, these are not convulsed. But if the Operator applies his left
hand to the Legs, or if a bystander, communicating with the Operator by
the medium of the floor only, touches them, they are convulsed. If a
stick of sealing-wax be interposed between his right hand and the gold,
or between his left hand and the Legs; or, if the bystander, touching
the Legs, is insulated, by standing on a stool supported by glass feet,
the Legs will not be convulsed. If the insulated bystander touches the
Legs with one hand, and the Operator with his other hand, the Legs are
immediately convulsed.
5. AFTER cutting the Spine transversely under the fifth Vertebra, and
all the parts of the Pelvis, except the Sciatic Nerves, and laying the
Spine on Zinc supported by glass, and the Legs on glass; if gold be
applied to the Zinc, and then to one of the Sciatic Nerves, both Legs,
if they have not been separated from each other at the Ossa Pubis, will
be convulsed[11]. And this happens although a stick of sealing-wax be
interposed between the hand of the Operator and the gold Probe, and
although no Metalline Substance touches the Legs.
THIS Experiment succeeds after denuding the Sciatic Nerves for the
length of an inch, and wiping them dry; and it continues to succeed
for an hour or more, and till the Nerves are evidently discoloured and
shrunk in their size. And, after that, although we wet the Nerves,
their powers are not restored; shewing that the influence had been
conveyed not by wetness on the surface of the Nerves, but by the
particular matter of which Nerves are composed.
THE event is the same, when the upper ends of the Sciatic Nerves are
cut away from the Spine, and laid on the Zinc.
6. AFTER preparing the Frog and placing the Metals as in last
Experiment, if a piece of thin dry Paper, pierced with a number of
small holes, be interposed between the gold Probe and the Sciatic
Nerves, the Legs will not be convulsed. But, if the Paper be wetted,
although it is not perforated, the Legs will be convulsed.
AFTER preparing a Frog, as in last Experiment, and laying the Spine
on one glass, and the Legs on another, if the Zinc be laid on a third
glass, and the gold Probe applied to it and to the Sciatic Nerves, the
Legs will not be convulsed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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