frog. It is best to carry out the experiments with vigor- ous specimens ; this ensures success, even in long continued experiments, which can then he repeated with unfailing certainty for hours. It is also an advantage to use a large frog for its relatively great length of the nerve.
Directive action of current on conductioyi of excitation in a nerve-and-muscle preparatioti : Experiment 40. — A preparation was made with a length of the spine and two nerves leading to the muscles. The specimen is supported in a suitable manner, and electric connections made with the toes, one for the entrance and the other for exit of the constant current. The current thus entered, say, by the left toe ascended the muscle and went up the nerve on the left side, and descended through the other nerve on the right side along the muscle and thence to the right toe. Before the passage of the constant electric current the spinal nerve was stimulated by an induction shock of definite intensity. The nervous impulse was conducted by the two nerves, one to the left and the other to the right, and caused a feeble twitch of the respective muscles. A feeble current of I'D micro-ampere was sent along the nerve-and-muscle circuit, ascending by the left and de- scending by the right side. It will be seen that excita- tion initiated at the spine is propagated ' against ' the electric current on the left side, and ' with ' the current on the right side. On repetition of previous electric stimulus the effect of directive action of current was at once manifested by the left Wrah being thrown into a state of strong tetanic contraction, whereas the right limb remained quiescent. By changing the direction of the constant current the induced enhancement of con- ductivity of the nerve was quickly transferred from the left to the right side, the depression or arrest of conduc- tion being simultaneously transferred to the left side. Turning the reversing key one way or the other brought
