496 STUDIES IN GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY 



vince oneself of the fact that a moist glass plate will serve as 

 a complete screen against all electrostatic effects of a charged 

 body upon the preparation. The entire surface of our bodies 

 is covered with such a screen in the form of the superficial 

 layers of the epidermis. In case we are not dealing with 

 enormous discharges, every thought of utilizing these effects 

 in medicine is shut out. Since in all these cases we are in 

 reality dealing only with the effects of currents (even when 

 we are using an unusually powerful machine), I consider it 

 more rational to use the galvanic current upon the skin of 

 the patient directly instead of utilizing the cumbersome 

 roundabout method of discharging a highly charged body 

 near a patient. 



Finally I must call attention to a fundamental error of 

 Danilewsky in his idea of the nature of electrical effects upon 

 protoplasm. Danilewsky believes with Chauveau and d' Ar- 

 son val that electricity acts only as a "mechanical stimulus." 



Nous posse"dons, sur ce point, des indications dans les tres- 

 interessantes recherches de M. d' Arson val. Dans sa communication 

 & la Socie"te" de Biologie de Paris, du 4 juillet 1891, M. d Arson val 

 relate que ses propres recherches sur 1'irritation electrique et me*ca- 

 nique des nerfs confirment entierement les vues de M. Chauveau 

 qui, des 1859, de"clarait que l'6lectricit agit uniquement comme 

 excitant me"canique, surtout a son point de sortie et en raison de la 

 densit^ a ce point. 



In contradiction of this idea I should like to point out 

 that Faraday's idea of electrolysis has become one of the 

 pillars of modern physics and chemistry. In living matter 

 it is only the electrolytes which conduct the current. 1 



1 In a book which Danilewsky has since published he has accepted my view as 

 far as the ionic conception <?f electrical stimulation is concerned. [1903] 



