734 Irreciprocal Conduction in the [December, 
The irreciprocity was therefore the greater the longer the 
part of the eleCtric organ traversed. 
But, decisively as the experiments here referred to seem 
to support the irreciprocity of the conduction, Prof. Du Bois 
Reymond considered it as not yet demonstrated. The 
phenomena might possibly, though very improbably, depend 
on polarisation. But, without reference to the interpreta- 
tion, it was important to effect a direct measurement of the 
conduction of the eleCtric organ, and to compare it with that 
of other tissues. 
According to a method which Professor Du Bois Reymond 
had formerly used for determining the resistance of the 
muscles of frogs, he compared with each other the conduc- 
tive power of a solution of common salt at f per cent ; of 
sea water, of the muscular flesh of a frog, and of the organ 
when traversed by a homodromous or heterodromous 
current. All these were, in succession, placed in one and 
the same tube, and introduced into the same circuit. It 
appeared that the eleCtric organ of the torpedo, in a homo- 
dromous direction, conducts twice as badly as frog muscle 
parallel to the fibres, and from 7^5 to 12 times worse than 
the sea water of the aquarium. In the heterodromous direc- 
tion the organ conducted 20 to 58 times worse than sea water. 
Experiments were made on the conductivity of the organ 
in a transverse direction, induction shocks being transmitted 
sometimes from the belly to the back, sometimes from the 
back to the belly, and sometimes transversely from one 
lateral margin to the other, e.g., in the homodromous direc- 
tion 80*7, in the heterodromous 22*5, and transversely 99 
degrees of deflection. When the lateral margins were 
covered with skin in order to equalise the conditions as far 
as possible, there was obtained a deflection in the transverse 
direction of 95 degrees of the scale either with or without 
skin, in the homodromous direction without skin 75 degrees, 
and in the heterodromous condition, likewise without skin, 
18. 
The low conductivity of the organ, and its irreciprocity, 
depend, as further experiments showed, on life. If the tube, 
filled with the columns of the organ, was plunged for a few 
minutes into boiling water, the conductivity of the organ 
was increased. Its resistance in both directions was now 
equal, and was smaller than the smallest resistance in the 
homodromous direction, smaller even than that of the 
physiological saline solution. The same increase of con- 
ductivity, and the simultaneous decrease of irreciprocity, 
occurred on the spontaneous death of the organ, so, after 
