514 
MR. F. GOTCH OjST THE ELECTROMOTIVE PROPERTIES 
c. Nerve-organ preparation of Torpedo 19 cm. X 12 cm. Total response, 
Galv. = -)- 50. The response commenced , 009" after excitation. The trans¬ 
mission time was •002", and the period of delay •007". 
cl. Nerve-organ preparation from Torpedo born in laboratory five days before ; active, 
giving distinct shocks to the hand; length 12 centims., breadth 8 centims. Total 
response, G. = + 80. The response commenced •012" after excitation, and, the 
transmission time being at most •002", the period of delay is ’Ol". 
The increased time of delay shown by the organ of the smaller Torpedoes might be 
explained as simply a case of the preceding results, which showed that, the smaller 
the total response, the later its apparent commencement; but a comparison of Cases 
c, and cl. shows that such an explanation is insufficient, since the response in cl. is larger 
than that in c., yet it begins later. 
These experiments upon the “ time of delay ” show the striking resemblance 
between the activity of the organ and that of muscle, nerve, &c. Experiments made 
eighteen months ago at Oxford, not yet published, upon the electromotive phenomena 
of skeletal Frog’s muscle by the repeating rheotome method, showed that there 
is such a period of delay between the excitation of the nerve and the commencement 
of the electromotive change in the responding muscle. This period of delay was 
found to be about •004", but could be shortened by warmth and prolonged by cold. 
In the case of the cardiac tissue of the Frog the delay between direct excitation of 
the tissue and the appearance of an appreciable electromotive change under the 
proximal leading-off electrode varied with the distance between the exciting and 
leading-off electrode. When this distance was made very small the time was 
shortened to *03" (28). A longer interval still is found in the case of the Tortoise 
heart (29). 
In the Dionasa a period of '05" intervenes between the excitation and the first 
appreciable electromotive change (30). 
On the other hand, the Malapterurus discharge can be appreciated very soon after 
excitation of the organ itself; the time of delay here was with appropriate leading- 
off (31) shortened to , 002". 
The recognition of this delay is equivalent to the admission that existing methods 
of observation are inadequate, for it implies that with the best known methods of 
investigation there is an interval of time left unoccupied by any of the known 
phenomena of functional activity. The existence of a real time of rest in the 
molecular processes of the excitatory state, when these processes pass from nerve- 
trunks into nerve-end organs, is not scientifically admissible. 
The apparent resting time may, perhaps, be considered as time during which 
these molecular processes are being transmitted along the excitable tissue very 
slowly. The blocking of the excitatory process in cardiac tissue by pressure, &c., 
is a case in point. The Torpedo presents us with a similar phenomenon, and this in 
spite of the fact that, once developed, the response of the electrical organ is far the 
