494 STUDIES IN GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY 
We are dealing simply and solely with the lesser irritability 
of nerves to transverse currents. 
The second experiment of Danilewsky is intended to show 
that we are not dealing with electrostatic effects. He 
obtained electrical effects when the secondary coil of the 
Ruhmkorff coil was closed by means of the secondary coil of 
another induction apparatus. I have repeated this experi- 
ment, and have found that it is in reality nothing else than 
the experiment discussed before, and that we can therefore 
speak as little of the effects of an oscillatory discharge, or of 
electric waves, in this case as in the previous experiment. 
To convince oneself of this fact one needs only to close the 
cireuit of the secondary coil of the Ruhmkorff through a 
rheostat instead of with the spiral of an induction apparatus. 
If a great resistance is introduced into the rheostat, about 
20,000 ohms, all the experiments which I have -described 
under a) and b) can be repeated between the terminals of 
the Ruhmkorff coil. When a resistance of only one ohm is 
introduced, no effects are obtained! In this case, therefore, 
we also deal with the production of a high potential at each 
side of the resistance through the introduction of a high 
resistance. These charges bring about an electrostatic 
separation of both kinds of electricities in the muscle prepa- 
rations. As soon as the discharge takes place, a current 
passes through the nerve which brings about maximal effects 
when it passes longitudinally through the nerve; minimal 
effects when it passes in a transverse direction. The experi- 
ments succeed most beautifully when the secondary spiral of 
the Ruhmkorff is closed through a glass tube filled with 
distilled water into each end of which dips a copper wire. 
In this case the glass tube behaves physiologically exactly 
as the path of the spark in my first-described experiments, 
and one can here repeat all the experiments which I have 
discussed in my first publication. But this is possible only 
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