126 RESPONSE IN THE LINING AND NON-LIVING 



platinum side by side, it will be seen how essentially 

 similar they are in every respect. 1 



This reversion to normal is seen to have appeared in 

 a pronounced manner after rapidly continuous stimula- 

 tion, in process of which the modified molecular condi- 

 tion must in some way have reverted to the normal. 



Being desirous to trace this change gradually taking 

 place, I took a platinum wire cell giving modified 

 responses, and obtained a series of records of effects of 



FIG. 78. THE GRADUAL TRANSITION FROM ABNORMAL TO NORMAL EESPONSE 



IN PLATINUM 



The transition will be seen to have commenced at the third and ended at the seventh, 

 counting from the left. 



individual stimuli continued for a long time. In this 

 series, the points of transition from modified response to 

 normal will be clearly seen (fig. 78). 



1 In order to explain the phenomena of electric response, some physio- 

 logists assume that the negative response is due to a process of dissimilation, 

 or breakdown, and the positive to a process of assimilation, or building up , 

 of the tissue. The modified or positive response in nerve is thus held to be 

 due to assimilation ; after continuous stimulation, this process is supposed 

 to be transformed into one of dissimilation, with the attendant negative 

 response. 



How arbitrary and unnecessary such assumptions are will become evi- 

 dent, when the abnormal and normal responses, and their transformation 

 from one to the other, are found repeated in all details in metals, where 

 there can be no question of the processes of assimilation or dissimilation. 



