448 STUDIES IN GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY 
elements each of which may be considered as in its own 
state of electrotonus. As a support for the correctness of 
this idea I quote the interesting observation of Roux, to 
which this investigator has recently again called attention: 
Every cell in an egg which is divided into a smaller or larger 
number of cells (morula or blastula) reacts individually, giving rise 
to altered electrical fields (special polarization) as long as the egg 
is vigorous. If, however, the vitality of the egg is reduced by 
cooling or poisoning (not sufficiently to cause death), the com- 
plexus of cells reacts as a whole, in other words, like an egg which 
is not yet divided into cells.’ 
If these two opposite conditions can occur in one and 
the same animal (under only different conditions), it is per- 
haps not extravagant to assume that the central nervous 
system of Amblystoma may behave like a homogeneous 
whole when subjected to the constant current, while the cen- 
tral nervous system of Crustaceans may behave as a series of 
separately irritable elements in its galvanotropic reactions. 
Whether the central nervous system of Amblystoma behaves 
in its galvanotropic phenomena as in its secretory processes 
is a question still to be investigated. 
It seems to me that our experiments on the polar excita- 
tion of the glands of the skin of salamanders may lead to a 
different explanation of the liquefaction of protoplasm ob- 
served by Kihne at the anodal side of Actinospherium 
from that which he has given.” Kahne compares this process 
with the tetanus of contractile elements. Might we not 
rather in this case be dealing with processes similar in nature 
to phenomena of secretion? One can readily understand 
how violent phenomena of secretion brought about through a 
strong electrical current might lead to a disintegration of 
the substance of a tender Protozoon, since the much tougher 
epidermis of Amblystoma goes to pieces at the anodal side 
1 Pfliigers Archiv, Vol. LXIII, p. 542. 
4 Untersuchungen tiber das Protoplasma (Leipzig, 1864), 
Digitized by Microsoft® 
