That the excited state spreads only to previously unexcited portions of the muscle fibre shows that even in the skeletal variety of muscle there exists, though only for a very brief time, a period of inexcitability.
But when neurons are linked together it is found that nerve impulses will only pass from neuron A to neuron B, and not from neuron B to neuron A; that is, the transmission of the excited state or nervous impulse, although possible in each neuron both up and down its own cell branches, is possible from one nerve cell to another in one direction only.
Now, in the excited state of popular feeling at that period, the failure of government to substantiate an accusation of treason would have been a serious matter.
Just as in a nerve fibre, when excited by a localized stimulus, the excited state spreads from the excited point to the adjacent unexcited ones, so in muscle the "contraction," when excited at a point, spreads to the adjacent uncontracted parts.
This proceeding aroused some opposition, and, complicated by religious considerations and by the excited state of European politics, almost precipitated a general war.
