AUTHOR’S ABSTRACT OF THIS* PAPER ISSUED 
BY THE BIBLIOGRAPHIC SERVICE, NOVEMBER 1 
EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON PRIMARY INHIBITION 
_OF THE CILIARY MOVEMENT IN BEROE CUCUMIS 
GUSTAF FR. GOTHLIN 
Upsala, Sweden 
INTRODUCTION 
As far as one can form an idea from the observations previously 
published, the leading principles of the ciliary mechanism in the 
meridional rows of the ctenophores seem to be as follows: The 
statolith apparatus of the ctenophores vibrates almost continu- 
ously; each ‘balancer’ communicates its vibrations to a ciliary 
plate belonging to it and by this means keeps up periodical ciliary 
waves in this plate (C. Chun). From each ciliary plate the waves 
are in their turn conducted to the two corresponding ciliated 
furrows and through these to the two rows of swimming plates 
that form their continuation (Chun). The conduction of the 
ciliary activity is ‘neuroid’ (Th. W. Engelmann, G. H. Parker), 
i.e., it has much of the character of a nervous conduction, 
although it proceeds through cells that belong to the superficial 
ectodermal layer. In the meridional row itself the mechanical 
act of contraction in the basal part of each swimming plate is 
of decisive importance for the further extension of the ciliary 
action in a distal direction, as the fixing of a single swimming 
plate appears in experiments (Eucharis, Beroé) to prevent the 
extension of the ciliary wave distally of the plate in question (M. 
Verworn), whereas cutting off the non-contractile part of one or 
several ciliary plates does not interrupt the conduction of the 
ciliary wave (Parker in the case of Mnemiopsis). . 
During a stay at the Zoological Station at Kristineberg in the 
summer of 1913 for the purpose of studying the influence of the 
galvanic current on the ciliary movement in the rows of the 
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THE JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL ZOOLOGY, VOL. 31, No. 4 
