On the electrical phenomena accompanying secretion in the skin of the frog / by W.M. Bayliss and J. Rose Bradford.

  • Bayliss, William Maddock, Sir, 1860-1924.
Date:
[1885?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the electrical phenomena accompanying secretion in the skin of the frog / by W.M. Bayliss and J. Rose Bradford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    had the same property. The sulphuric acid, however, is not so powerful in this respect as the neutralized corrosive sublimate, for we found it easy by longer or shorter immersion to diminish the negative phase to any extent we pleased. Of course it is quite possible to imagine that the acid glands are more sensitive to these reagents than the alkaline glands, and it may be connected with the fact that the former are more excitable, as mentioned above. Repeated experiments, however, on the reaction of the cutaneous secretion before and after corrosive sublimate have shown that there is no constant relation whatever between the reaction of the secretion and the sign of the electrical change. Another circumstance which opposes the hypothesis is, that we have been totally unable to find any reagent which has the opposite effect to corrosive sublimate and acids, i.e. to depress the positive phase and excite the negative phase. The con- stant current (anode and cathode), sodium hydrate, sodium carbonate, camphor, and potassium hydrate have been applied to the skin externally, and lactic acid hypodermically injected, but all had only a depressing effect on both phases. Hermann’s later hypothesis accounts for the phenomena in the fol- lowing way. It will be remembered that a pure negative variation is the result, according to this hypothesis, of a powerful epidermic current, the gland current even at its highest being inferior to that of the epidermis, and hence when the mouths of the glands are forced open a diminution in the current results. If then the epidermic current is depressed by the corrosive sublimate or acid, the positive phase will appear; and it is also clear why a positive phase once present cannot be replaced by a negative one, for to do so would require a reagent capable of increasing the epidermic current. On the whole then this hypothesis seems the more acceptable one. For our part nevertheless we are loth to admit that so powerful a negative variation as we have very frequently observed, being far greater than any positive variation with the same strength of exciting current, is the result merely of the preponderance of the epidermic current over the glandular current. Action of A tropin. Hermann states that atropin abolishes the electrical excitatory change as well as the secretory effect; we have seen the former greatly diminished by large doses but not entirely abolished, except in No. 1