16 



and the twitches registered on a drum. From above the muscle 

 was slowly irrigated with an extract of the starfish stomach in 

 frog's saline. In a control experiment the same thing was done 

 with saline only. 



The results of these experiments are clearly visible in flg. 1 

 and fig. 2. In the case of the extract we see how the muscle 

 .after a short time falls into a series of almost tetanic contrac- 

 tions, allthough the signal indicates that I only stimulated once. 

 The muscle remains in this semi-contracted condition for a long 

 time, regularly responding to electrical stimulation. The response 

 however, becomes weaker and is frequently irregular, after 



Fig. 1. 

 Poisonous action of extract of starfish stomach on frog's gastrocnemius. 



about half an hour no response whatsoever is obtained for 

 several minutes. After the experiment is stopped, the muscle 

 does not even respond to direct stimulation any more and is 

 apparently exhausted or ..killed". 



A control muscle did not show as irregular a behavior, gives 

 the same response after half an hour as in the beginning, could 

 be stimulated both directly and indirectly after this time and 

 did not show the peculiar contracting phenomenon. 



From this evidence the writer is inclined to believe that a 

 toxic action of some kind can be attributed to the stomach of 

 the starfish. Time for a closer study of this problem could not 



