124 PROTOPLASMIC ACTION AND NERVOUS ACTION 



of cells, the internal conductivity of the latter can be 

 estimated. The measurements cannot be made very 

 exact; they indicate, however, that the internal con- 

 ductivity of the corpuscle is of the order of that of a o.i n 

 KCl solution (between o.i n and o.oi n). 



Hober also experimented with another method some- 

 what different in principle/ If high-frequency oscilla- 

 tions are induced (lo^ per second) in a circuit containing 

 a condenser and a detector (spark-gap), and the beaker 

 {B, Fig. 2), encircled by a coil of wire forming part of 



Fig. 2. — C, condenser; V, beaker containing suspension of corpuscles; G, spark- 

 gap; S, coil in which current is induced (Hober, loc. cit.). 



the circuit, is filled with a conducting solution, the oscilla- 

 tions are damped. Hober again found that cells sus- 

 pended in sugar solution produce this effect, and to 

 the same degree whether they are intact or cytolyzed 

 with saponin, although the Kohlrausch conductivity 

 is, of course, much greater in the latter case. The 

 low Kohlrausch conductivity of intact cells is thus 

 apparently due to the inclosing plasma membranes; 

 the internal conductivity of the protoplasm is high. 

 Again by comparing the effects produced by cell- 

 suspensions with those produced by salt solutions of 



^ Hober, Arch. ges. Physiol., CXLVIII (1912), 189. 



