NECROSIS 379 



frco,^^ whi(;h has been used for experimental studies on the functions 

 of the leucocytes. 



Electricity. — The effects of the electric current upon cells are de- 

 scribed by Davenport as follows: A weak constant current causes 

 a centripetal flowing of the protoplasm (in Actinosphaerium) ; if the 

 current is increased or long continued, the cytoplasm of the pseudo- 

 podia becomes varicose, and droplets are formed which soon burst, 

 causing a collapse of the protoplasmic framework. Finally, the 

 protoplasm on the anode side begins to disintegrate, and the loose 

 particles move toward the positive electrode; eventually the cell 

 structure may be entirely destroyed. A similar disintegration of the 

 anode side of ameba has been observed by McClendon,^^ which he 

 attributes to anions which cannot pass through the cell wall, and 

 therefore accumulate on that side of the organism. If an alter- 

 nating current is used, both anode and cathode sides of the cell are 

 affected. In moving organisms electric currents determine direction 

 of motion, even certain vertebrates (tadpoles, fish) being made to 

 orient themselves according to the current. The nucleus seems to be 

 more susceptible to harm by electric currents than the cytoplasm 

 (Pfeffer),^" and there seems to be no oxidation-process involved in 

 cell destruction by electricity (as is the case with light rays), for 

 the effects are much the same in the absence of oxygen (Klemm). 

 Schmaus and Albrecht state that the effect of electricity upon proto- 

 plasm depends upon a loosening of the cohesion and a solution of the 

 constituents of the cell (vacuolization), which last is, perhaps, due 

 to direct chemical alterations. It may be suggested that the electric 

 current causes a migration of ions toward one or the other pole of 

 the cell, in this waj^ separating the movable inorganic ions of the 

 ion-protein compounds of the cell from the immobile colloidal pro- 

 teins, with consequent serious alterations in the chemistry of the cell. 

 Zeit^^ found that continuous currents kill bacteria through the pro- 

 duction of antiseptic substances in the culture-medium, but do not 

 harm them directly. 



Jellinek^" has studied extensively the cause of death after severe 

 electric shocks, and finds that there are produced intracerebral hemor- 

 rhages and degeneration of the nerve-cells, which are sufficient to 

 explain the death of the individual without having recourse to the 

 more indefinite idea of "shock." Cunningham^^ considers fibrillary 

 contraction of the heart as the cause of death. ^^ Spitzka and Ra- 



^^ There is no increase in antitrypsin from this leucocyte destruction (Rosenow, 

 Zeit. exp. Med., 1914 (3), 377). 



'^ Pfitiger's Arch., 1911 (140), 271. 



*'' Literature given by Davenport, "Experimental Morphology." 



81 Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc, 1601 (37), 1432, literature. 



82 Virchow's Arch., 1902 (170), 56; Lancet, 1903 (i), 357. 

 " New York Med. Jour,, 1899 (70), 581. 



8^ Full discussion by Jelliffe in Peterson and Haines' "Legal Medicine and 

 Toxicology," 1903 (1), 245. 



