Toxio AND ANTITOXIC EFFECTS oF Ions’ 709 
of unfertilized eggs (artificial parthenogenesis).' Those 
who have followed my work on artificial parthenogenesis 
may have noticed that from the start I aimed at bringing 
about artificial parthenogenesis through ions. It seemed to 
me that I could not find any better test for my idea that the 
electrically charged ions influence life-phenomena most 
effectively than by causing unfertilized eggs to develop 
by slightly altering the proportion of ions contained in 
them. I believe that all these experiments proved what I 
expected they would prove, namely, that by slightly chan- 
ging the proportion of ions in a tissue we can alter its physi- 
ological properties. 
The next step taken consisted in proving that it was in- 
deed the electrical character of the ion that determined its 
specific efficiency. I succeeded in doing this three years 
ago. It was known that a frog’s muscle gives rise to twitch- 
ings or rhythmical contractions when immersed in certain 
solutions. I showed that such contractions occurred only in 
solutions of electrolytes, and not in solutions of non-con- 
ductors (distilled water, various sugars, glycerin, urea).” 
Soon after I showed the same to be true also for the rhyth- 
mical contractions of the Medusz.* From observations made 
in my laboratory, the same fact was shown to hold for the 
turtle’s heart by Mr. Lingle,’ and for the lymph hearts of 
the frog by Miss Moore.’ I am confident that this fact 
will be proved universally. 
In the physiology of the heart one frequently encounters 
the statement that calcium is the stimulus for the contraction 
of the heart. I had found that a muscle is able to twitch 
1 Part II, p. 646. Archiv fiir die gesammte Physiologie, Vol. LXXXVII (1901), 
p. 594, 
2 Part II, p. 518. 
3 Part IT, pp. 553 and 559. 
4 LINGLE, American Journal of Physiology, Vol. IV (1900), p. 265. 
5 Moors, ibid., Vol. V (1900). p. 87. 
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