464 



LIVING TORPEDOS IN BERLIN. 



three times as small as that of the nerves of birds, or of mammalia 

 with the exception of those of the horse, and over five times 

 as small as that of the nerves of the lobster, as determined by 

 Fredericq 1 . 



This striking result demanded further experimental proof, which 

 in the course of the winter I carried out on two Torpedos. In con- 

 sequence, perhaps, of the cold and hunger from which the creatures 

 had suffered for more than two months, the average value which I 

 obtained was still less than that of Christiani. The mean of his 

 four measurements is 0-007075, of my sixteen only 0-005925. In 

 only one case I obtained a higher value, namely, in a very fresh 

 fish, in which the force reached 0-01123, an amount observed even 

 in weaker nerves of the frog and of the toad, notwithstanding that 

 they are much thinner 2 . In so far as my measurements simply 

 confirm those of Prof. Christiani, I would not dwell further upon 

 them, had I not come in the course of them upon a point relating 

 to their behaviour, which seems sufficiently important to represent 

 in the following table : 



ELECTEOMOTIVE FORCE OF THE ELECTRICAL NERVES OF THE 

 TORPEDO IN RAOULT. 



1 Archiv fur Physiologie, 1880, pp. 68, 71. 



3 Comp. Wedenskii, Notiz zur Nervenphysiologie der Krote. Archiv filr Physiol. 

 1883, p. 310. 



