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

  • William Bayliss
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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    [From the Journal of Physiology. Vol. VII. Ho. 3.] ON THE ELECTRICAL PHENOMENA ACCOMPANY- ING SECRETION IN THE SKIN OF THE FROG. By W. M. BAYLISS, B.Sc. (Land.), and J. ROSE BRAD- FORD, B.Sc. (Lond.), Senior Demonstrator of Anatomy in Uni- versity College, London. (From the Physiological Laboratory, University College, London.) History. Du Bois-ReYMOND1 discovered the fundamental fact in 1857. The skin of the frog was found to be the seat of an electromotive force of such a direction that the outside of the skin was negative to the inside; this was shown to be due to the glandular stratum by scraping off the superficial part of the skin, upon which the current vanished. Previously to this, however, du Bois-Reymond2 had described an experiment which he believed to demonstrate the negr tive variation of muscle when in a state of voluntary contraction, hence calling it “ Willkur-versuch; ” but Hermann has since proved the electrical changes manifested here to be due to the activity of the sweat glands. Du Bois-Reymond then was actually the first to detect a secretion current through mistaking its nature. Currents similar to that described by du Bois-Reymond in the frog’s skin were discovered by Rosenthal3 in the stomach and intes- tines, by Engelmann4 in the mucous membrane of the throat, by Hermann and Luchsinger5 in the tongue, all however in the Frog. The first investigation on the action of nerve excitation on the skin current was carried on by Roeber6, under Rosenthal’s direction, on the leg of the frog. He saw for the most part a negative variation, but Moleschott's Vnters. 1857. 2 Unters. iiber thier. Elect. 3 Arch. f. Anat. u. Phys. 1863, 4 Centralblatt f. d. vied. Wiss. 18G8. 5 Pflilger's Archiv, xvii, 1878. 6 Archiv f. Anat. u. Phys. 1869. 1G PH. VII.