732 Irreciprocal Conduction in the [December. 
has its magnetic field. The force accumulated in thes« 
apparatus radiates outward, and bodies which are found 
within a given radius undergo its action. It is true that, ii 
a nervous force is suspended, its existence is by no means 
demonstrated. But it is as impossible for the physicist to 
prove directly the existence of the ether as it is for the phy- 
siologist to prove in a direct manner the human [better, 
ammalj nervous field. We suspect the existence of the 
ether from its effects; we admit magnetic forces at a distance 
without seeing them, by observing that iron placed at a 
certain distance is attracted. In the same manner, if it be 
pioved that a substance acts upon the human body at a dis- 
tance,, theie must exist a something which is impressionable. 
I his impressionable zone will be manifest only in those 
conditions of development of nerve-force which are peculiar 
to hysterical subjects. In these conditions the phenomena 
of medicines acting at a distance is easily explained : they 
are at once plunged into a nervous zone which they impress 
y determining special physiological actions, mostly of the 
nervous order. 
The discovery of MM. Bourru and M. Burot is full of 
consequences in the sphere of physiology and psychology, 
and it is impossible to foresee to what it may lead. 
VI. ON THE IRRECIPROCAL CONDUCTION IN 
THE ELECTRIC ORGAN OF THE TORPEDO. 
» URING the years 1883, 1884 and 1885, Prof. Du Bois 
Reymond has had repeated opportunities of exa- 
mining living specimens of this singular fish, and 
has communicated his results in the “ Transactions of the 
Berlin Academy ofSciences” (“ Sitzungsberichteder Berliner 
Academie der Wissenschaften,” 1885, P- 691) and the 
N aturfoi seller. Notwithstanding the much enfeebled and 
consequently inefficient state of the fish, he succeeded, by 
means of skilfully arranged investigations, in establishing a 
senes of facts which are a very important contribution to 
the full understanding of these mysterious electrical organs. 
We shall, for the present, consider only one of his results 
the ii 1 ecipi ocity of the conduction in the electrical organ. 
