Note 17 — Chapter XIV · INORGANIC RESPONSE—FATIGUE, STAIRCASE, AND MODIFIED RESPONSE
Reading edition
In order to explain the phenomena of electric response, some physiologists assume that the negative response is due to a process of dissimilation, or breakdown, and the positive to a process of assimilation, or building up, of the tissue. The modified or positive response in nerve is thus held to be due to assimilation; after continuous stimulation, this process is supposed to be transformed into one of dissimilation, with the attendant negative response.
How arbitrary and unnecessary such assumptions are will become evident, when the abnormal and normal responses, and their transformation from one to the other, are found repeated in all details in metals, where there can be no question of the processes of assimilation or dissimilation.