INFLUENCE OF ROENTGEN RAYS UPON METABOLISM 895 



the respiration from the muscular contraction produced. With currents 

 of high voltage there is impairment of the respiratory center. The path 

 of the electrical current through the body and the conditions under which 

 the exposure occurs are variable but very important factors in determin- 

 ing the effect produced. 



Electrolysis is commonly used in various conditions for its local de- 

 structive effects, notably in the removal of superfluous hair and for the 

 treatment of certain skin diseases such as nevi. A method has been em- 

 ployed known as ionic medication by which certain substances are intro- 

 duced a varying distance through the skin by means of electrical current. 



Hardy in a study of the coagulation of protein by electricity has shown 

 that under the influence of a constant current the particles of protein 

 in a diluted and boiled solution of egg white move with the negative 

 stream if the reaction of the fluid is alkaline and with the positive stream 

 if the reaction is acid. The particles under this directive action of the 

 current aggregate to form a coagulum. 



Stewart (a) (&) has shown that the red blood corpuscles have a very low 

 electrical conductivity in comparison with that of the serum or the 

 plasma and that the conductivity of the blood serum in which the hemo- 

 globin of red blood cells has been dissolved by various methods of laking is 

 increased. 



Burge(a) has found that in a solution containing both pepsin and ren- 

 nin the passage of a direct current of ten milliamperes for twenty-five hours 

 results in the complete disappearance of the peptic power, as tested on 

 milk and fibrin, while the action of the rennin is apparently unchanged. 

 In further experiments Burge(&) has demonstrated that ptyalin is de- 

 stroyed by the passage of the direct electric current. * This destruction is 

 not due to the electrolytic products ; the rate of destruction is uniform, that 

 is, 2.5 per cent per coulomb. The rate of destruction of pepsin by the 

 passage of the direct electric current has been estimated by Burge(c) by 

 the decreased amount of egg white digested in proportion to the number 

 of coulombes that were allowed to pass. His conclusion is that the di- 

 gestive activity of a solution of pepsin is decreased by the passage of the 

 direct electric current at a uniform rate per unit of current. The solu- 

 tions were kept from polarizing by rapid shaking. 



Tousey in his extensive work has described the use of electricity in 

 many pathological conditions. Meyer and Gottlieb in their clinical and 

 experimental pharmacology state that nothing is known about the direct 

 action of electric energy on the metabolic processes of the cells. Steel has 

 reviewed the literature up to 1916 on the influence of electricity on metab- 

 olism and concludes that two or more totally different types of electrical 

 currents may have practically the same effect on metabolism. The high 

 frequency type whose action is largely thermic seems to cause an increase 

 in practically the same urinary constituents as the static type whose ac- 



