EFFECTS OF ELECTRICAL WAVES 491 



II 



My experiments were published in the June number of 

 Pflilgers Archiv. In the July number of the Archives de 

 physiologic B. Danilewsky published two articles under the 

 title, " Excitation des nerfs par les rayons electriques."' 

 Danilewsky overlooked the circumstance upon which every- 

 thing depends in this case the significance of the orienta- 

 tion of the nerves toward the spark discharge. It will be 

 seen that Danilewsky's experiments are a further proof for 

 my assumption that the effects which he and I observed are 



FIG. 144 



not determined by the oscillatory nature of the discharge. 

 For his experiments are made in a way which does away 

 with the oscillatory nature of the discharge almost entirely. 

 The experiments of Danilewsky apparently fall into three 

 groups. In reality, however, we are dealing with one and 

 the same experiment. We will discuss first of all the ex- 

 periment which he designates as the "interference experi- 

 ment " (p. 524). Each of the poles of the Ruhmkorff coil is 

 connected with a smooth metal plate. These metal plates 

 are set up parallel to each other some 50 to 100 cm. apart. 

 " If the nerve is placed in a position symmetrical with the 

 two metal plates, one obtains no effect The symme- 

 try needs to be altered only slightly, that is to say, the prep- 

 aration needs to approximate one of the metal plates only 

 slightly, in order to bring about induced contractions." If 

 we study the drawing (Fig. 144, according to Danilewsky) 



