68 



DYNAMICS OF LIVING MATTER 



his experiments the animals also showed phosphorescence in boiled water; 

 but as very little oxygen suffices for the phenomenon, it is possible that 

 in Giesebrecht's experiments sufficient oxygen was present for the pro- 

 cess. The experimenters agree, in general, that free oxygen is neces- 

 sary for phosphorescence. It is possible, however, that the conditions 

 for phosphorescence may vary with the nature of the substance. 



5. ELECTRICAL PHENOMENA IN LIVING ORGANISMS 



When Galvani noticed that the muscles of the leg of a frog twitch 

 when touched with two metals, he believed that this phenomenon 

 indicated the production of electricity in living organisms. Volta 

 subsequently showed that the nerve-muscle preparation only acts as 

 a sensitive rheoscope. Thus a misunderstood biological observation 

 became the germ for the development of electrochemistry. It was 

 found afterward that living organisms produce indeed some electrical 

 energy, but in spite of the most diligent search nobody has yet been 

 able to prove that the electrical energy thus produced plays any role 

 in an essential life phenomenon, although this may be the case. 



The liquids of the body must be the cause of the differences of 

 potential in the tissues as only the electrolytes dissolved in these liquids 

 are capable of producing differences of potential. The most common 

 instances of the production of a difference of electrical potential are 



the cases of an active or 

 dying nerve or muscle. When 

 an element of a nerve is 

 active or injured, and one 

 electrode of a galvanometer 

 is applied to the active or 

 injured spot (Fig. 14), an- 

 other to the neighboring 

 resting, or normal element of 

 the nerve or muscle, a cur- 

 rent of positive electricity 

 travels through the galvanometer from the resting, or normal, to the 

 active, or injured element of the nerve or muscle. The activity of 

 the muscle, or its injury, is accompanied by a production of acid, 

 i.e. carbonic, and possibly, lactic acid. According to Waller CO 2 

 is also produced in the active nerve.* I concluded from this that 

 these currents might be due to the formation of acid. The H-ions 

 have a much greater velocity of migration than any anion, and hence, 



* Waller, Lectures on Physiology, I. On Animal Electricity, London, 1897. 



FIG. 14. 



