XX 



ON THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ELECTRICAL 



WAVES 1 



1. IN the June number of Pflugers Archiv I published 

 some experiments which were undertaken in the hope of ob- 

 taining physiological effects through Hertzian waves. 2 I 

 have continued my experiments since then, and will in this 

 paper publish some new facts and some further confirmations 

 of the ideas set forth at that time. I will at the same time 

 enter a little more deeply into the theoretical discussion of 

 these phenomena. 



In the July number of the Archives de physiologie 

 Danilewsky published a paper on the "Excitation of Nerves 

 through Electrical Rays." The experiments of this author 

 coincide partly, so far as the mere facts are concerned, with 

 the experiments which I have published previously. So far 

 as his explanation of the experiments goes, it is entirely 

 wrong. 



If we allow a spark to pass between the spheres of the 

 discharger of an electric machine or a Ruhmkorff coil, we 

 obtain waves all of which are propagated with the velocity of 

 light. The wave-lengths, however, depend upon the number 

 of oscillations per second. If, for example, we separate the 

 two spheres of the spark discharger of a Ruhmkorff until a 

 spark no longer passes between them, the number of oscilla- 

 tions obtained in a second corresponds to the number of 

 oscillations of the interrupter. In this case we deal with 

 waves thousands of kilometers in length, and it is of course 



1 Pflilgers Archiv, Vol. LXIX (1897), p. 99. 



2 "On the Theory of Galvanotropism, V," ibid., Vol. LXVII (1897), p. 483. 



482 



