320 



L. II. HYMAN AND A. W. BELLAMY. 



Biedermann ('96), a pupil of Bering's, adopts the latter's view- 

 point, designating it as the Hermann-Hering theory. Biedermann 

 likewise refers " all electromotive activities of living matter to 

 chemical changes of the substance." Further details will be found 

 in the volume cited, p. 351 ff. 



"\Yaller has long been an exponent of the theory of the metabolic 

 origin of the bioelectric currents, which he designates as " blaze " 

 currents because they are conceived of as due to sudden accelera- 

 tions of normal chemical processes. This viewpoint appears 

 clearly in his Lectures on Animal Electricity ('97), in which publi- 

 cation the following statements appear (Waller uses the terms 

 positive and negative with reference to the tissue, not to the gal- 

 vanometer i.e., the reverse of the usual usage) : " Active matter 

 is electropositive (int.) to inactive matter; more active matter is 

 electropositive to less active matter ; matter that is by any means 

 stirred up to greater activity is rendered electropositive to undis- 

 turbed matter; matter whose action is lowered is electronegative 

 to matter whose action is normal." Waller further goes on to say 

 that any more active spot "where more chemical action is going 

 on" is electropositive (int.) to a less active spot "where less 

 chemical action is going on." A similar statement is made in his 

 Signs of Life ('03), pp. 84-85: "A lump of protoplasm at rest 

 and homogenous throughout is isoelectric throughout ; let it be 

 acted upon by its environment, any point of its surface is chemi- 

 cally more active " and becomes electropositive to " any point of its 

 mass." If the mass becomes chemically more active than the sur- 

 face, then the mass becomes electropositive to the surface. 



In 1903 Mathews discovered the electric gradient along the axis 

 of certain hydroids. This was the first case in which a correlation 

 between potential differences and the principal axis was established 

 for animals. Mathews suggested that the potential differences are 

 due to metabolic differences, and that such potential differences 

 may control polarity. Mathews's present views concerning the 

 relation between the bioelectric currents and metabolic processes, 

 according to personal conversation with him, coincide with those 

 presented in this paper. Mathews's student Tashiro ('17) also 

 favors the conception that " chemical changes underlie and produce 

 the electrical changes" (I.e., p. 102). 



