Note 5 — Chapter II · ELECTRIC RESPONSE

‘The Electrical Sign of Life ... An isolated muscle gives sign of life by contracting when stimulated ... An ordinary nerve, normally connected with its terminal organs, gives sign of life by means of muscle, which by direct or reflex path is set in motion when the nerve trunk is stimulated. But such nerve separated from its natural termini, isolated from the rest of the organism, gives no sign of life when excited, either in the shape of chemical or of thermic changes, and it is only by means of an electrical change that we can ascertain whether or no it is alive ... The most general and most delicate sign of life is then the electrical response.’—Waller, in Brain, pp. 3 and 4. Spring 1900.