Page:Life in Motion.djvu/119

use of scissors and forceps. We shall have recourse, however, to the action of a substance called curare, which paralyses the end-plates in the muscle-fibres. Here are two muscle telegraphs. The one is connected with a muscle afiected by curare, the other with a muscle in a normal state. I have arranged Fig. 52.—A muscle-fibre, a, from a lizard. b, nerve-fibre terminating in an end-plate. my apparatus so as to be able to stimulate both nerves at once or both muscles at once.Now I send the shocks from our induction coil to both nerves, and you observe that only one muscle has contracted, moving its telegraph signal; that is, the muscle the nerve of which is not under the influence of the curare.