506 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Moreau, Babuchin, Gotch) denied its action, and this was, at first, also 

 our opinion, as 24 hour immersions in 1 per cent curare solutions had 

 no marked effect. In other experiments, we had noted that hght cuts 

 made with a razor blade along the longitudinal surface of a column did 

 not interfere with its capacity for delivering good responses. We 

 thought that this treatment might facilitate the penetration of drugs, 

 and we immediately got a positive result (Auger and Fessard^). 1 per 

 cent solutions acting during 1-2 hours abolish all excitability. As op- 

 posed to the striated muscle, the electric organ becomes inexcitable after 

 curarization. 



c. If the electric plate is a real functional unit, its activity must be 

 greatly impaired or completely suppressed by severe mutilation. Iso- 

 lated columns were divided lengthwise into three narrow strips, each 

 plate being thus fragmented into 3 parts, and severely damaged. This 

 is a complementary situation, compared to that of the nerve degenera- 

 tion experiments, the plate itself being practically destroyed, but the 

 finer nerve tracts at the endings being only partially damaged. In 

 spite of this drastic treatment, the preparation remains excitable and 

 gives discharges of smaller amplitudes, but of normal shape. 



d. One may object to the strict vahdity of arguments (a) and (6), 

 as they concern situations in which the plate is modified in some way. 

 For instance, after nerve degeneration, the organ shows some reduc- 

 tion in thickness, and the curare poisoning may have altered the prop- 

 erties of the plate. Results obtained with isolated intact columns may 

 supply indirect, but more satisfactory, evidence. 



Using very strong electrical stimuli, we had expected to get a true 

 effector response, as the nerve impulses would arrive during the re- 

 fractory period of this hypothetical effector unit. Different electrode 

 positions were tried, the results of which we observed from the point 

 of view of threshold, latency, amplitude, and components of complex 

 waves. The results show that any of these parameters (and the varia- 

 tions thereof) depends upon, and can only be explained by, the char- 

 acteristics of the nerve supply pattern. They appear to be determined 

 by the symmetry of the nerve distribution, not by that of the plates. 

 These are some of our observations: 



1. No difference in latency or in the form of the discharge can be 

 observed in supra-maximal longitudinal excitation, whether the cur- 

 rent is or is not in the direction of the discharge. No systematic dif- 

 ferences in threshold values were found. 



