CHAPTER X\^ 



THE PHYSICO-CHEMICAL BASIS OF TRAX.sMlSSIOX 

 IN NERVE AND OTHER PROTOPLASMIC 



SYSTEMS 



The view that the transmission of the excitation- 

 state from the active region of an irritable i)rot()i)hismic 

 element to the adjacent resting region is the result of 

 secondary electric stimulation by the local bioelectric 

 current between the two areas is one which is suj)i)ortc(l 

 by general theoretical considerations and by a variety 

 of direct and indirect evidence. In a general sense there 

 is nothing novel about this hypothesis, which, like most 

 scientific conceptions, has had its historical background 

 and development; it was expressed tentatively by Du 

 Bois-Reymond^ and in a more definite form by Hermann;-' 

 more recently Kiihne, Cremer, Gotch, Keith Lucas, 

 and others have supported it on various grounds.-' The 

 absence in nerv-e of any observable accompaniment of 

 the local excitation process, other than the electric 

 variation, which could conceivably serve as a stimulus 

 to the resting region adjoining the active area, is in 



^ Gesammelle Ahhandlungcn zur allgcmeincn Muskcl utid Xcncn- 

 physik, II, p. 698; cf. p. 733. 



2 See especially the clear statement by Hermann in his Uiindbuch, 

 II, 194, cited in Cremer's comprehensive article on nerve physiology in 

 Nagel's Handhiich der Physiologic, IV, 2d half (1909), 929. 



3 Kuhne, Croonian Lecture, Proceedings of the Royal Society, WAV 

 (1888), 446; Cremer, loc. cit.; Gotch, article on nerve in Schafcr's text- 

 book, cf. pp. 458, 557 ff.; Keith Lucas, Journal of Physiology, XXXIX 

 (1909), 207. 



379 



