v ELECTROMOTIVE ACTION OF EPITHELIAL AND GLAND CELLS 505 



even under the microscope. There was also an extraordinary 

 increase of bulk of water in the blood, producing fundamental 

 disturbances of nutrition in the tissues, as exhibited inter alia by 

 the appearance of rich transudations in different organs, more 

 particularly in the abdominal intestinal tract. The former, as 

 found by Cohnheim and Lichtheim, discharged a large bulk of 

 fluid after each plentiful infusion of salt solution, while the 

 mucosa often swells to a thickness of 2 cm., and the intestine 

 appears full of exuded matter. 



A marked augmentation of the entering abdominal current is 

 nearly always exhibited in the rabbit shortly after the commence- 

 ment of infusion with salt solution, increasing more and more 

 as the experiment progresses, and finally reaching such abnormal 

 proportions that the galvanometer mirror is driven off the field 

 even when the current has already been compensated. It is 

 noticeable that in these cases a marked ingoing current may be 

 observed for a long time after the death of the animal, which 

 never occurs under normal relations. 



The significance of these, as of the other experiments described, 

 can only lie indicated in a later connection. Here we can only 

 state that the fundamental conformity in electromotive properties 

 existing between the mucosa of the frog's stomach, and that of 

 the tongue, throat, and cloaca, and especially the fact that 

 all circumstances producing mucous secretion tend to increase 

 the entering current, give decisive evidence that the electro- 

 motive effects depend, if not solely, at least in the first degree, 

 upon the mucin-secreting elements of the stomach, i.e. its surface 

 epithelium. Whether, and how far, the actual secreting glands 

 are concerned in it, may perhaps be decided from a more 

 detailed examination of the changes in electromotive action 

 which accompany the digestive processes in warm - blooded 

 animals. 



In any case there is not the slightest ground for making the 

 peptic glands of the stomach alone responsible for the current 

 of the mucosa ; the less so, since there is regularly a very signifi- 

 cant quantitative difference in electromotive action between the 

 stomach and intestine, which would be unintelligible if --as 

 would then be assumed the many glands of the intestinal 

 mucosa were as electrically active as the glands of the stomach. 

 On the other hand, the difference is easily understood if we 



