Konstante Stromwirkung und « funktionelle Polarität »

Scheminzky found that the effect produced by passing a constant current through a frog depended on the direction of the current. While a descending current (directed from heat to foot) produced paralysis, an ascending current produced convulsions.Scheminzky believed that it was impossible to explain this phenomenon in any other way than by a “functional polarity”, involving a special microstructure in the cells of the spinal cord.—We found that the observed effect is in no way connected with the direction of the current, and that, on the contrary, it depends exclusively upon the electrical charge applied to the upper centres. The cathode on the spinal cord produces convulsions while the anode does not. The effects remain unchanged if the second electrode is removed from the spinal cord and applied to some spot outside the central nervous system. If, following extirpation of a small segment of the spinal cord, one electrode is placed on the head and the second electrode is applied to the cut surface of the lower part of the spinal cord, a perfect reversal of theScheminzky phenomenon can be obtained.