346 Assimilation 



motor force in the opposite direction, which this current 

 possesses at this point and at this moment, then it will 

 not be difficult for us to conceive of the case in certain 

 respects analogous, which we have assumed for oscillat- 

 ing nervous discharges, in which the calorific oscillations, 

 which replace here the oscillations of the induction cur- 

 rent, continually increase the mass of living substance 

 which will in this way be "assimilated." 



Let us note that in the case of nervous currents we 

 must assume that their specificity is constant even during 

 the oscillation. Then the duration of each nervous dis- 

 charge, and hence of each oscillation also, in cases where 

 the specificity i of the nervous current is something 

 dynamically equivalent to the intensity of the electric 

 current, will likewise be definite and constant for every 

 given specificity. 



For let us consider again an electric current. If its 

 intensity i persists for a time t, the total actual energy 

 furnished during the whole of this time by this current 

 will be Eit, where E represents the electro-motive force. 

 But this total energy will necessarily be proportional to 

 the mass M of the substance whose decomposition during 

 the time t has produced this current; one has thus 

 Eit=hm, where h is a coefficient of proportionality, de- 

 pendent solely upon the units of measure selected. But 

 if the supposition which we have accepted for nervous 

 currents in general holds good also for this electric cur- 

 rent, namely, that the electro-motive force is proportional 

 also to the mass of substance which tends by decomposi- 

 tion to produce the current, then also E=km, where k 

 again is a coefficient of proportionality dependent likewise 

 solely upon the units of measure which are adopted. 



