THE INFLUENCE OF PHYSICAL FACTORS 103 



The Influence of Electric Currents. 



d'Arsonval [1891] found that high frequency alternating electric 

 currents, d'Arsonval or Tesla currents, without producing any form of 

 muscular activity had a very distinct influence upon the respiratory 

 exchange of man and animals, increasing it sometimes 100 per cent. 

 His methods were unreliable, however, and the experiments of Loewy 

 and Cohn [1900] on man and of Spasski [1900] on rabbits show, in 

 the opinion of the writer, conclusively that there exists no real effect of 

 these currents on the standard metabolism. 



