Abstract
In their attempts to develop a physical theory of electrical stimulation, Nernst1 and A. V. Hill2 have supposed the current to act by carrying the ions within the tissue against a membrane barrier. The resulting heaping up of the ions at the membrane constitutes the first step in excitation. If we assume, as the work of Loeb3 shows we have a right to do, that the positive ions are the effective ones, then according to the views of Nernst and of Hill stimulation must occur at the cathode when the current is made. This is a statement of Pfluger's law and is valid for frog tissue, with which Pfluger worked.A consideration of cases in which Pfluger's law is reversed suggests that a somewhat different and more general picture of the ion mechanism of electrical stimulation is necessary. In the ctenophores Beroe and Mnemiopsis, when the galvanic current is passed through a trough of sea water containing them, the result is a luminescent glow on the anodal side of the animal.4 This glow occurs on the make and las...
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