Page:Life Movements in Plants.djvu/159

Rh Experiment 45.—Under the action of feeble heterodromous current the transmitted excitation was always enhanced, whatever be the form of stimulation. This is seen illustrated in Fig. 50. Homodromous current on the other hand inhibited or blocked excitation (Fig. 51).

50.—Ineffectively transmitted salt-tetanus becoming effective under heterodromous current, denoted by down-pointing arrow.

Complication due to variation of Excitabilitty [sic] of Muscle.—In experiments with the plant, there was the unusual advantage in having both the point of stimulation and the responding motile organ in the middle or indifferent region. Unfortunately this ideally perfect condition cannot be secured in experiments with the nerve-and-muscle preparation of the frog. It is true that the point of stimulation in this case is chosen to lie on the nerve at the middle or indifferent region. But the responding muscle is at one end, not very distant from the electrode applied on the tendon. It is, therefore, necessary to find out by separate experiments any variation of excitability that might be induced in the muscle by the proximity of either the anode or the cathode, and make allowance for such variation in interpreting the results obtained from investigations on variation of conductivity.