v ELECTROMOTIVE ACTION OF EPITHELIAL' AND GLAND CELLS 511 



takable relations between the strength of both phases and the 

 nature of the glandular secretion, since it regularly appears that 

 the first phase predominates, or even appears exclusively, where 

 the secretion is plentiful and watery, the second when it is 

 sparse, but rich in mucin. The observed differences in electrical 

 action of the submaxillary in cat and dog respectively would 

 thus be explained by the actual diversity in the secretion yielded 

 in either case on chorda excitation, since in the dog it is much 

 more watery than in the cat. 



While in the dog, excitation of the sympathetic only produces 

 an extremely viscid and scanty secretion, in the cat, on the other 

 hand, it is plentiful and watery. The electrical effects are 

 correspondingly small, with prevailing second phase, in the first 

 case in the second they are considerable, and even exceed the 

 effect of chorda excitation. Bayliss and Bradford consider that 

 poisoning with atropin excludes the action of simultaneous, 

 vaso- motor effects in the electromotive effects observed, since 

 while this drug has no vascular action, it soon abolishes, or very 

 strongly affects, secretory and electrical functions. 



Another observation of the same authors on the submaxillary 

 and parotid of the dog must also be noticed. Excitation of the 

 sympathetic, as a rule, produces no quantity of secretion 

 from the last - named gland, yielding only a few drops of 

 viscid submaxillary saliva. Under certain conditions, however, 

 especially after repeated excitation of the cerebral gland nerves, 

 a more plentiful secretion appears, with corresponding alteration 

 of electromotive action. While the surface of both glands is 

 usually positive to the hilus in excitation from the sympathetic, 

 in this instance an opposite variation appears (when the cerebral 

 gland nerves are excited), either alone, or as an accentuated 

 preliminary phase. Bradford is inclined to bring the first 

 electrical change (second phase) into causative relation with the 

 formation of the organic constituents of the saliva, while he refers 

 the opposed, usually stronger, variation to the processes of 

 secretion of water. 



If the views thus set forth are legitimate, we should naturally 

 regard both entering and outgoing currents of the glands as 

 " secretion currents," i.e. the galvanic expression of permanent 

 chemical action in the secretory cells, and there would be no 

 question of the appearance of a new electromotive force derived 



