136 RALPH S. LILLIE. 



trode of an electrolytic cell instantly calls forth a corresponding 

 change at the other electrode seems to furnish the closest 

 physico-chemical analogy. In this chemical "distance-action" 

 the transmission is directly dependent upon electrolysis i. e., 

 chemical change at the contact of electrode and electrolyte, 

 conditioned by the passing of an electric current between the 

 electrodes. The possibility that a process of essentially this 

 type may occur in living cells is not so remote as might seem at 

 first sight, even though conductors of the first class are not 

 present. In many respects the conditions at the boundary 

 between the living cell and its medium are similar to those at the 

 boundary between a metallic electrode and the adjoining elec- 

 trolyte. Cell-surfaces are electrically polarized; this polariza- 

 tion is subject to change under a variety of conditions; hence 

 local circuits readily arise in cells and nerve-fibers as a result 

 of stimulation or local alteration or injury. These circuits 

 resemble in various essential respects those arising when dis- 

 similar metals in metallic connection are placed in contact with 

 an electrolyte (the usual battery arrangement); thus (i) the 

 potentials can be summed, 1 (2) the potentials vary with the 

 concentration of the electrolyte in essentially the same manner 

 as in the case of metallic electrodes, 2 and (3) a marked degree of 

 polarizability is shown. The inference that chemical changes of 

 the nature of electrolysis may occur where currents enter and 

 leave the cell-surface would seem to be justified by these re- 

 semblances. The existence of such a condition would go far to 

 explain many hitherto obscure types of physiological trans- 

 mission, besides the conduction of stimuli for example, the 

 transmission 'of formative or integrative influence in the phe- 

 nomena of regeneration, form-regulation, growth and develop- 

 ment. The general influence of electric currents upon cellular 

 processes would also appear in a clearer light; it is well known 

 that formative and other metabolic processes, as well as activities 

 like contraction and nerve-conduction, are profoundly influenced 

 by such currents. There are also grounds for believing that in 

 the restoration of the normal resting condition of cells, after 



1 Cf. Briinings, Pfliiger's Archiv, 1903, Vol. 98, p. 241. 



2 Macdonald, Proc. Roy. Soc., 1900, Vol. 67, p. 325. Cf. also Loeb and Beutner, 

 Biochem. Zeitschr., 1912, Vol. 41, p. 3. 



