158 STUDIES IN ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY: 



movements such an arrangement is invaluable, and this 

 kind of continuity seems to foreshadow the muscular 

 fibres of animals. . . . The ' continuity of protoplasm ' 

 has here also an important bearing, and the nerves of 

 animals seem prefigured." It is known that plants suffer 

 from chlorosis, and that it may be cured by putting a little 

 soluble iron in the soil. 



Also Sachs says in his Physiology of Plants : " It can 

 scarcely be wondered at if the conclusion is drawn that 

 something in the nature of nerves exists in the leaves of 

 Dioncea, as appears moreover to accord with the in- 

 sectivorous propensities of these plants. ... In any case 

 we have no necessity to refer to the physiology of nerves 

 in order to obtain greater clearness as to the phenomena of 

 irritability of plants ; it will, perhaps, on the contrary, 

 eventually result that we shall obtain from the process of 

 irritability in plants data for the explanation of the 

 physiology of the nerves." 



In the vegetable world the various forms of life have 

 their roots in the negative soil, and embryologists have 

 demonstrated that their starch-sugars are of laevo- and 

 their albumins of dextro-rotation. Man has his roots, 

 so to speak, in the positive air, and the rotation of his 

 sugar-glycogen and albumins is directly opposite to that 

 of the plant. That line of thought is worth following, and 

 may be productive of valuable results. 



A good deal has been written upon the effect of curara 

 upon motor nerves. My own research has shown that 

 certain poisons increase the resistance of the nerve sub- 

 stance to such an extent that the nerves are unable to 

 transmit impulse ; with the result that there is pain so 

 closely resembling that attendant upon neuritis and sciatica 

 as to introduce error into diagnosis. Moreover, Professor 

 Chunder Bose and I have both found that plants are 

 similarly affected. In a recent experiment I tested a 



