SECTION OF GLAND UI. I R NER VES. 5 r 9 
plex to allow a definite conclusion to be arrived at. In any adequate discussion 
of the matter, the facts regarding the production of electric currents in other 
parts of the body, and especially in the skin and mucous membrane, would 
have to be taken into account. One or two points only we can mention here. 
In the skin and mucous membranes of the frog and other animals investigated, 
there is generally an ingoing electric current, which is increased by weak 
stimulation. Hermann 1 considers both currents to be due to an "apobiotic" 
change in the protoplasm. By "apobiotic" is meant any change which 
diminishes the vital energy of a part of the protoplasm, compared with the 
rest; such as is produced by stimulation, the act' of dying, the change of proto- 
plasm to mucin or to keratin, and so forth. Parts undergoing apobiotic 
change are negative to the rest of the protoplasm. Thus, in a mucous cell, 
the inner mucous portion of the cell becomes negative to the outer proto- 
plasmic part, and a current is then set up, which passes in the galvanometer 
from capsule to hilus, and in the gland from mucous to protoplasmic portion, 
i.e. there is an ingoing current. As to the outgoing current, Hermann is 
inclined to consider it as a simple diminution (negative variation) of the 
normal ingoing or secretory current ; whilst Biedermann advocates the view- 
that the outgoing current is due to anabolic (assimilatory) processes in the 
gland-cells. 
Section of Glandular Xerves. The Paralytic Secretion. 
Claude Bernard 2 was the first to make observations upon the effect 
of section of glandular nerves. He found that section of the chorda 
tympani in the dog caused the submaxillary gland in two or three days 
to enter into a state of slow continuous secretion. The slow Mow of 
saliva continued for five to six weeks, and then stopped. During this 
time the gland itself diminished more and more in size. 
Since the secretion is the result of the section of nerve-fibres, it has 
been called the " paralytic secretion." Claude Bernard attributed the 
secretion to the complete removal of nervous impulses. Thus the flow 
of saliva did not begin for two or three days, because the terminations 
of the chorda tympani in the gland required two or three days to 
degenerate completely. It stopped in five to six weeks, because then, 
he thought, the chorda fibres had regenerated. 
The question was taken up a few years later by Heidenhain. 3 In 
order to exclude the possibility of the paralytic secretion being caused 
by irritation of the duct or gland, he cut the chorda tympani in the 
tympanic cavity. The secretion occurred in the same way as when the 
nerve was cut peripherally of the ganglion, then called the submaxillary 
ganglion (cf. above, p. 481). It began in twenty-four hours at least, 
i.e. considerably earlier than the time given by Bernard. It was watery, 
and contained very little mucin; it contained many leucocytes (amoe- 
boide Korperchenj, and was in consequence somewhat cloudy. The 
secretion was at first very slow, but gradually increased in rapidity, so 
that in about a week a large drop might be secreted every twenty 
minutes. After three weeks it diminished markedly. The gland itself, 
as its size diminished, became of a yellowish tint, and waxy appearance. 
The time taken by the peripheral ends of the cut chorda tympani 
1 Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., Bonn, 1894, Bd. lviii. S. 246. References to mueli of the 
earlier work will be found in this paper. 
2 Joum. dc I'anab. etphysiol., etc., Paris, 1864, tome i. p. 507. 
:; Stud. d. physiol. Inst, zu Breslau, Leipzig, 1868, Heft 4, p. 73. 
