12 



Papers from the Department of Marine Biology. 



appears to be that of acidosis in blood, wherein pathological effects 

 appear when the amount of acid is so slight that the P H is hardly 

 affected, the buffer value of the carbonates and phosphates, however, 

 being reduced. 



It was due, indeed, to the acidity of the distilled water, and to my 

 not realizing the marked effect of slight changes in temperature, that I 

 was misled into entertaining the false idea that the curve of decline in 

 rate in diluted sea-water resembles that of Freundlich's curve of 

 adsorption, and that therefore adsorption may play a fundamental role 

 in nerve-conduction. These recent experiments, wherein the sea-water 



100 



50 



1007* 90 80 70 60 



Concentration of diluted sea water 



Electrical conductivity. 



-o Rate when natural sea-water is diluted with 



acid distilled water of PH 6.04. 

 Rate when natural sea-water is diluted with 

 alkaline distilled water of PH 7.93. 



FIG. 8. Showing decline in rate of nerve-conduction in Cassiopea in diluted 

 sea-water, and corresponding decline in the electrical conductivity of 

 sea-water. See tables 4 and 5. 



was diluted with distilled water of P H about 8, appear to show that 

 adsorption has nothing to do with the matter. 



Indeed, Ralph S. Lillie (1916)* has already called attention to the 

 close resemblance between my curve for decline in rate of nerve-con- 

 duction and the corresponding decline in the electrical conductivity of 

 the*diluted sea-water, and in this latest and best-established curve of 

 1916, using distilled water of about P H 8 to dilute the sea-water, the 

 accordance with Lillie's expectation is almost perfect, as appears from 

 table 5 and figure 8. It should be said, however, that the degree of 

 ionization of the sodium, calcium, and potassium of the sea-water 

 follows nearly the same law. Thus the rate of nerve-conduction, as 



*American Journal of Physiology, vol. 41, pp. 126-136. 



