Structure and Polarity of Electric Motor Nerve-Cell in Torpedoes. 243 
Stronger direct currents were then tried by modifying the 110-volt 
current to a strength that ‘‘cooked” the tissue, and some interesting 
results were attained which as yet it has not been possible to interpret 
in an entirely satisfactory way. Nor did they seem to throw a very 
definite light upon the question of orientation. They probably, how- 
ever, do give some basis for deduction and will be described. These 
experiments, in the order of the amount of current passed through the 
tissue, were on torpedoes Nos. 3, 10,5, and 4. These four experiments 
resolve themselves rather easily into two types, the strong and the 
very strong current experiments. Torpedo No. 3 will represent the 
first and torpedo No. 5 the second. Exact measures of these currents 
are unfortunately lacking. 
The first experiment (see fig. 19, plate 4) shows the following 
results: The outline of the entire cell was not changed in shape, nor 
were any of the processes modified. The nucleus was displaced bodily 
in the direction of the kathode, and its kathodal end, which was some- 
what more than half of the whole nucleus, was considerably swollen, 
especially in a lateral (with reference to direction of current) direction. 
The anodal end was smaller and sharply set off from the other end by 
an inset that can best be seen in the figure. 
The total displacement of the nucleus in the kathodal direction 
appears to have resulted in an almost vacant space on its anodal side, 
a space that corresponds to the original position of the nucleus in shape 
and size. This space is almost filled with a delicate clot which is 
thinnest and most delicate at its center, or next to the nucleus. 
Bulging out from the anodal point of the nucleus is a very peculiar 
bag or sac-like structure with a sharp and somewhat flattened outline. 
It contains nothing in the sectioned and stained condition. Apparently 
it is the result of an electrolysis through the anodal end of the nuclear 
membrane and its bounding membrane appears to have been formerly 
a layer or part of the nuclear membrane, or else it is a new membrane 
formed by the material that has passed out of the nucleus. The 
shrinkage of the anodal half of the nucleus may be accounted for by 
the escape of some fluid constituent. 
On the kathodal side of the nucleus a sector of the cytoplasm, whose 
sides radiate slightly from the two edges of the inset mentioned above, 
is filled with some deeper-staining material, not composed of visible 
granules. Between it and the surface of the nucleus one sees a narrow 
region which is thin in texture and does not stain readily. 
Inside the nucleus we find that the anodal and contracted half of the 
nucleus is filled with a homogeneous mass of dark-staining material, 
which I take to be a modified form of the perichromatin. In this 
material the plasmosome and the several karyosomes are to be seen 
“floating.’”’ The karyosomes appear to be distributed very evenly 
through the dark-staining mass and not to either “float” or “sink”’ 
