XxX 
ON THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ELECTRICAL 
WAVES! 
I 
1. In the June number of Pfliigers Archiv I published 
some experiments which were undertaken in the hope of ob- 
taining physiological effects through Hertzian waves.’ I 
have continued my experiments since then, and will in this 
paper publish some new facts and some further confirmations 
of the ideas set forth at that time. I will at the same time 
enter a little more deeply into the theoretical discussion of 
these phenomena. 
In the July number of the Archives de physiologie 
Danilewsky published a paper on the “ Excitation of Nerves 
through Electrical Rays.” The experiments of this author 
coincide partly, so far as the mere facts are concerned, with 
the experiments which I have published previously. So far 
as his explanation of the experiments goes, it is entirely 
wrong. 
If we allow a spark to pass between the spheres of the 
discharger of an electric machine or a Ruhmkorff coil, we 
obtain waves all of which are propagated with the velocity of 
light. The wave-lengths, however, depend upon the number 
of oscillations per second. If, for example, we separate the 
two spheres of the spark discharger of a Ruhmkorff until a 
spark no longer passes between them, the number of oscilla- 
tions obtained in a second corresponds to the number of 
oscillations of the interruptor. In this case we deal with 
waves thousands of kilometers in length, and it is of course 
1 Pfliigers Archiv, Vol. LXIX (1897), p. 99. 
2“On the Theory of Galvanotropism, V,” ibid., Vol. LXVII (1897), p. 483. 
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