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. 
