PHYSIOLOGY: A. G. MAYER 
41 
has passed through it. Thus by Wilhelmy's law the rate of nerve con- 
duction is proportional to the concentration of the adsorbed sodium, 
calcium and potassium cations which conduct it. 
Since 1899, Loeb^ has maintained that physiological reactions are 
phenomena associated with the formation of ion-pro teids, but I think 
that while this is true for nerve conduction it is only half the truth, and 
that it is possibly a phenomenon of adsorption combined with that of an 
ordinary chemical reaction. 
TABLE I 
Showing the rates of nerve-conduction in circuit-shaped strips of subumbrella 
TISSUE OF Cassiopea xamachana in sea-water diluted with distilled water. Experi- 
ments MADE AT TORTUGAS, FLORIDA, JULY 5-16, 1915. 
RATES OF NERVE-CONDUCITION 
Natural 
sea-water 
a:=l00 
(Q) 
95 s. w. 
4-5 d. w. 
:c = 95.2 
90 s. w. 
-1-10 d.w. 
^=90.5 
80 s. w. 
20 d. w. 
x=80.S 
70 s. w. 
-f-30 d. w. 
x = 7lA 
60 s. w. 
+40 d. w. 
a; = 62.2 
1. Observations of Medusae Nos. 1-25 in 
sea-water diluted with alkaline dis- 
tilled water containing somewhat less 
than 10—6 OH ion concentration, July 
5-9, 1915. See curve I I, Fig. 2 
Rate (y) calculated from the formula: 
y = 103. 37-0. 541 (9S.2-a;)^**^ 
100 
103.37 
103.37 
100.33 
100.00 
92.67 
90.78 
81.09 
80.59 
69.33 
69.87 
II. Observed rates of Medusae Nos. 51- 
70, July 11-16 in sea-water diluted 
with distilled water which was less al- 
kaline than in I 
Rate (y) calculated from the formula: 
y = 100-0.2 (100-a;)^-^' 
See Curve II II, Fig. 2 
100 
100 
(+) 
98.28 
=b.96 
98.24 
94.86 
±1.18 
95.52 
88.19 
±1.83 
88.59 
80.12 
±1.61 
80.27 
70.3 
±1.96 
70.92 
III. Observed rates of Medusae Nos. 58- 
71, July 14-16, 1915 in sea-water di- 
luted with nearly neutral distilled 
water 
Rate (y) calculated from the formula: 
y = 2.512;«; 
See curve III III, Fig. 2 
^0.8 
The ratio 
100 
100 
0.398 
100 
96.86 
±.66 
96.15 
0.395 
96.15 
92.25 
±1.62 
92.32 
0.397 
92.29 
84.2 
±2.15 
84.27 
0.398 
84 21 
77.6 
±1.82 
76.38 
0.397 
76.29 
67.5 
±2.14 
68.40 
0.403 
68.48 
observed y 
Rate (y) calculated from the formula: 
y = 100-0. 778 (100 -x)^""' 
Q. 95 cc. sea-water + 5 cc. distilled water. 
Z. X = 100 means that the concentration of the cations Na, Ca, and K in natural sea-water is taken to be 100. 
Then the concentration of the cations in 95 per cent sea-water is 95.2, etc. 
-f Probable errors are stated as ± following a determination. 
Loeb indeed is not antagonistic to the view that complex changes 
other than those of a simple chemical reaction may accompany nerve 
conduction, for he says, Comparative Physiology of the Brain and Com- 
parative Psychology, p. 14 (1900): ''We have to remember that all life 
phenomena are due to motions or changes occurring in colloidal 
substances." 
