Life Movements in Plants, Volume I

by Jagadis Chandra Bose

Fig. 49.—Effect of hetero­dromous and homo­dromous current in inducing variation in velocity of trans­mission through nerve. N, normal record, upper record shows enhancement, and lower record retardation in velocity of trans­mission under hetero­dromous and homo­dromous currents, respectively.

Experiment 44.—The experiments described below were carried out during the cold weather. The following records (Fig. 49), obtained by means of the pendulum myograph, exhibit the effect of the direction of current on the period of trans­mission through a given length of nerve. The latent period of muscle being constant, the variations in the records exhibit changed rates of conduction. The middle record is the normal, in the absence of any current. The upper record, denoted by the left-hand arrow, shows the action of a hetero­dromous current in shortening the period of trans­mission and thus enhancing the velocity above the normal rate. The lower record, denoted by the right-hand arrow, exhibits the effect of a homodromous current in retarding the velocity below the normal rate. I find that a very feeble hetero­dromous current is enough to induce a considerable increase of velocity, which soon reaches a limit. For inducing retardation of velocity, a relatively strong homo­dromous current is necessary. I give below a table showing the results of several experiments.

TABLE V—EFFECT OF HETERODROMOUS AND HOMODROMOUS CURRENT OF FEEBLE INTENSITY ON VELOCITY OF TRANSMISSION.

Specimen.	Intensity of heterodromous current.	Acceleration above normal.	Intensity of homodromous current.	Retardation below normal.
	microampère	per cent.	microampères	per cent.
1	0.35	16	1.0	20
2	0.70	13	1.5	19
3	0.80	18	2.0	14
4	0.80	11	2.0	13
5	1.00	18	2.5	12
6	1.50	15	3.0	40

VARIATION OF INTENSITY OF TRANSMITTED EXCITATION UNDER HETERODROMOUS AND HOMODROMOUS CURRENTS.

In the next method of in­ves­ti­ga­tion, the induced variation of intensity of transmitted excitation is inferred from the varying amplitude of response of the terminal muscle. Testing stimulus of sub-maximal intensity is applied at the middle of the nerve, where the constant current induces no variation of ex­cit­abil­ity. Stimulation is effected either by single break-shock or by the summated effects of a definite number of equi-alternating shocks, or by chemical stimulation

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]).