MUSCULAR TWITCHINGS 765 



kations. In view of the fact that thus far no explanation 

 has been found for pathological phenomena of this kind, it 

 becomes of some importance to see whether or not in certain 

 of these diseases the relative amount of calcium ions in the 

 blood is diminished. If. this should be the case, the adminis- 

 tration of calcium would be the cure for these diseases, which 

 thus far have been beyond medical control. It is also 

 apparent from our experiments that for the suppression of 

 neurogenic twitchings or contractions more calcium may 

 possibly be required than for the suppression of myogenic 

 twitchings. There has thus far been no clue as to the origin 

 of hypersensitiveness or hyperalgesia of the skin. Our ex- 

 periments show that slight variations in the proportion of 

 certain ions in the skin can cause an enormous hypersensi- 

 tiveness. 



As far as the theoretical side of the paper is concerned, 

 it was our aim to test the idea whether or not the "stimulat- 

 ing" and inhibiting effects of ions are an unequivocal func- 

 tion of their electrical charge or valency. Over a year ago 

 I tested the same idea without being able to obtain positive 

 results, and nothing was said about the subject in the paper 

 in which the results were published. 1 The test was con- 

 tinued in the above-mentioned experiments, with results 

 which, in my opinion, are equally questionable, if not alto- 

 gether negative. 



1 Part II, p. 692. 



