14 Papers from the Department of Marine Biologrj. 



Lillie advocates an extension of the theory of Faraday and de la Rive 

 that the transmission of the excitation state from the iimnediate site 

 of activity to the adjoining resting areas is dependent upon an elec- 

 trical local action of the same essential nature as that which is respon- 

 sible for the etching or corrosion of non-homogeneous metallic surfaces, 

 such as iron in contact with an electrolyte solution. Lillie calls this 

 theory the "local action theory of conduction," and if, indeed, nerve- 

 conduction be such a process, its rate must be proportional to the 

 electrical conductivity of the conducting medium and the surrounding 

 fluid (sea- water). 



Lillie's hypothesis is, moreover, indirectly supported by the recent 

 work of Adrian (1916),* who shows that after stimulation the recovery 

 of conductivity is apparently complete at the same instant when the 



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sea wa.tGr ^-ion (q-*^-^ 



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f^eturried "to sea water 



Fig. 10. — A ring of Cassiopea in diluted sea-water, showing decline in rate of nerve- 

 conduction as dilution proceeds, followed by recovery of rate but not of amplitude 

 upon being replaced in natural sea-water. 



♦Journal of Physiology, Cambridge, vol. 50, p. 345. 



