Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber’s notes:

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The text of the book has largely been preserved in its original form. However, some spelling errors have been corrected and some missing punctuation items inserted (hyphen, space, parenthesis, quotation mark). Inconsistent spellings have not been changed. A list of spelling errors and inconsistencies has been appended at the end of the book. Missing footnote markers on pages 96 and 136 have been inserted at what seemed to be likely locations.

The cover image of the book was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

YALE UNIVERSITY

MRS. HEPSA ELY SILLIMAN MEMORIAL LECTURES

IRRITABILITY

SILLIMAN MEMORIAL LECTURES

PUBLISHED BY YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS

ELECTRICITY AND MATTER. _By_ JOSEPH JOHN THOMSON, D.SC., LL.D., PH.D., F.R.S., _Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics, Cambridge_.

_Price $1.25 net; postage 10 cents extra._

THE INTEGRATIVE ACTION OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. _By_ CHARLES S. SHERRINGTON, D.SC., M.D., HON. LL.D., TOR., F.R.S., _Holt Professor of Physiology in the University of Liverpool_.

_Price $3.50 net; postage 25 cents extra._

RADIOACTIVE TRANSFORMATIONS. _By_ ERNEST RUTHERFORD, D.SC., LL.D., F.R.S., _Macdonald Professor of Physics, McGill University_.

_Price $3.50 net; postage 22 cents._

EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL APPLICATION OF THERMODYNAMICS TO CHEMISTRY. _By_ WALTHER NERNST, _Professor and Director of the Institute of Physical Chemistry in the University of Berlin_.

_Price $1.25 net; postage 10 cents extra._

PROBLEMS OF GENETICS. _By_ WILLIAM BATESON, M.A., F.R.S., _Director of the John Innes Horticultural Institution, Merton Park, Surrey, England_.

_Price $4.00 net; postage 25 cents extra._

STELLAR MOTIONS, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MOTIONS DETERMINED BY MEANS OF THE SPECTROGRAPH. _By_ WILLIAM WALLACE CAMPBELL, SC.D., LL.D., _Director of the Lick Observatory, University of California_.

_Price $4.00 net; postage 25 cents extra._

THEORIES OF SOLUTION. _By_ SVANTE AUGUST ARRHENIUS, PH.D., SC.D., M.D., _Director of the Physico-Chemical Department of the Nobel Institute, Stockholm, Sweden_.

_Price $2.25 net; postage 14 cents extra._

IRRITABILITY, A PHYSIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE GENERAL EFFECT OF STIMULI IN LIVING SUBSTANCE. _By_ MAX VERWORN, M.D., PH.D., _Professor at Bonn Physiological Institute_.

_Price $3.50 net; postage 20 cents extra._

IRRITABILITY

A PHYSIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE GENERAL
EFFECT OF STIMULI IN LIVING SUBSTANCE

BY

MAX VERWORN, M.D., PH.D.

_Professor at Bonn Physiological Institute_

WITH DIAGRAMS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW HAVEN: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON: HENRY FROWDE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
MCMXIII

COPYRIGHT, 1913
BY YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS

First Printed May, 1913, 600 Copies

THE SILLIMAN FOUNDATION.

In the year 1883 a legacy of eighty thousand dollars was left to the President and Fellows of Yale College in the city of New Haven, to be held in trust, as a gift from her children, in memory of their beloved and honored mother, Mrs. Hepsa Ely Silliman.

On this foundation Yale College was requested and directed to establish an annual course of lectures designed to illustrate the presence and providence, the wisdom and goodness of God, as manifested in the natural and moral world. These were to be designated as the Mrs. Hepsa Ely Silliman Lectures. It is the belief of the testator that any orderly presentation of the facts of nature or history contributed to the end of this foundation more effectively than any attempt to emphasize the elements of doctrine or creed; and he therefore provided that lectures on dogmatic or polemical theology should be excluded from the scope of this foundation, and that the subjects should be selected rather from the domains of natural science and history, giving special prominence to astronomy, chemistry, geology, and anatomy.

It was further directed that each annual course should be made the basis of a volume to form part of a series constituting a memorial to Mrs. Silliman. The memorial fund came into the possession of the corporation of Yale University in the year 1901; and the present volume constitutes the ninth of the series of memorial lectures.