80 Dr. A. D. Waller. Influence of Acids and Alkalis 



The last glyph, in the inscription is a Katun sign with the numeral 

 14 above it, and a sign for " beginning " in front of it, and indicates 

 that the last date is the beginning of a 14th Katun. If we turn 

 to the table for the 9fch Cycle of the 54th. Great Cycle, from which 

 we started, it will be seen that the 14th Katun of that cycle does 

 commence with the date 6 Ahau 13 Muan. 



It is simply impossible that the identity of the dates expressed in 

 the inscription with those to which the computations have guided us 

 can throughout be fortuitous. Very nearly half of the forty-eight 

 glyphs in the inscription have been accounted for, and I have no 

 doubt that when the inscription passes under Mr Goodman's scrutiny 

 he will be able to give us much information about the remaining 

 glyphs which I have passed over as undeciphered. 



It can, I think, therefore, be fairly claimed for Mr. Goodman that 

 his researches have raised the veil of mystery which has for so long 

 hung over the carved hieroglyphic writing of the Mayas. 



"Influence of Acids and Alkalis upon the Electrotonic Cur- 

 rents of Medullated Nerve." By Augustus D. Waller, 

 M.D., F.R.S. Received June 10 —Read June 17, 1897. 



A. The Effect of Acids and of Alkalis. 



Considering that electrotonic currents are characteristic of living 

 medullated nerve, that such currents are due to electrolytic polarisa- 

 tion, and that such electrolysis must primarily consist in a libera- 

 tion of electronegative principles (oxygen, acid, &c.) at the anode, 

 and of electropositive principles (hydrogen, base, &c.) at the 

 kathode, the first and most obvious test to be made is to examine com- 

 paratively the action of acids and bases upon anelectrotonic and 

 katelectrotonic currents. 



On the supposition that a medullated nerve-fibre is composed of 

 two different electrolytes, white fatty sheath and grey proteid axis, 

 and that electrolytic polarisation is aroused at the interface of 

 separation between these two electrolytes, we may expect to find, as 

 the characteristic acidic effect, diminution of A and increase of K, 

 and as the characteristic basic effect, increase of A and diminution 

 of K. 



This expectation is in the main substantiated by experiment, 

 although owing to the somewhat narrow range of concentration 

 within which moderate effects are produced, it is not common to 

 obtain effects in both of the two opposite directions in a single 

 experiment. The reagent may be too weak, in which case neither 

 A nor K are altered, or it may be too strong, in which case both A 



