GALVANOTROPISM AND "REVERSAL OF INHIBITION" BY STRYCHNINE

Abstract

The cathodically galvanotropic orientation of nemerteans, Lineus, and the anodic orientation of the gephyrean Echiurus, are reversed by the action of strychnine under conditions such that the typical "reversal of inhibition" induced by this substance is apparent. Nicotine does not give this result. Since it is necessary to assume that the strychnine effect is due to action upon the central ganglia, and since the galvanotropic effect depends upon action of the current on nerve cell bodies of the central ganglia, it must be assumed that the locus of reversal by strychnine is not perikaryal, but presumably synaptic.