60 



CONTRIBUTION TO THE 



Experiment VIII. 3 Meidingers, rheochord 1000 ; duration of 

 closure 5"; distance between the electrodes 8. 



i. Before application of the alcohol : 



Mean variation 0-144. 



Mean 



2. After application of the alcohol : 



10 



5.08 



Deflection. 

 7-2 

 6-7 

 6-8 

 6-8 

 6-6 



Mean 6-82 



Mean variation 0-152. 



Here, again, the changes in polarisahility are parallel with the 

 occurrence of break - contractions. The same phenomena that 

 Biedermann observed in the muscular contractions after treatment 

 of the nerve with alcohol present themselves when we examine 

 with the galvanometer the polarisation of the nerve. 



In a paper which well deserves attention Griitzner has recently 

 considered, amongst other questions, the occurrence of the break- 

 contraction when different parts of a nerve are stimulated 1 . We 

 shall, for the present, pass over Griitzner's conclusions relative to 

 the significance of the ' nerve current ' in the production of the 

 break-contraction, and only note that in his experiments, when 

 the plexus was stimulated, the break-contraction occurred as well 

 with an ascending as with a descending current, if the slider of his 

 rheochord (he employed a rheochord with one wire, of the same 

 construction as that used for compensation experiments) stood at 

 from 80 to i4O mm from the zero point. If, however, the nerve was 

 stimulated in the middle, below where the branches to the thigh 

 are given off, above its separation into the two end divisions, and 

 in the same way if it was stimulated near the knee, in most cases 



1 Griitzner, Archiv fur die gesammte Physiologic, vol. 28, pp. 130-178, 1882. 



