98 RESPONSE IN THE LIVING AND NON-LIVING 



mental modification, fig. 55, b, where the wire was 

 shown to give response when kept completely immersed 

 in water, variation of surface being thus entirely 

 eliminated. 



Both these questions may, however, be subjected to 

 a definite and final test. When the wire to be acted on 

 is clamped below, and vibration is imparted to ft, a 

 strong molecular disturbance is produced. If now it be 

 carefully released from the clamp, and the wire rotated 

 backwards and forwards, there could be little molecular 

 disturbance, but the liquid friction and surface variation, 

 if any, would remain. The effect of any slight disturb- 

 ance outstanding owing to shaking of the wire would 

 be relatively very small. 



We can thus determine the effect of liquid friction 

 and surface action by repeating an experiment with and 

 without clamping. In a tin wire cell, with interposed 

 external resistance equal to one million ohms, the wire 

 A was subjected to a series of vibrations through 180, 

 and a deflection of 210 divisions was obtained. A 

 corresponding negative deflection resulted on vibrating 

 the wire B. Now A was released from the clamp, 

 so that it could be rotated backwards and forwards in 

 the water by means of the handle. On vibrating the 

 wire A no measurable deflection was produced, thus 

 showing that neither water friction nor surface variation 

 had anything to do with the electric action. The 

 vibration of the still clamped B gave rise to the normal 

 strong deflection. 



As all the rest of the circuit was kept absolutely the 

 same in the two different sets of experiments, these 



