ELECTRIC TISSUE : RELATIONS BETWEEN THE STRUCTURE,ELECTRICAL CHARACTERISTICS,AND CHEMICAL PROCESSES OF ELECTRIC TISSUE |
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| Authors: | R T Cox C W Coates M Vertner Brown |
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| Institution: | From the Department of Physics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, the New York Aquarium, New York Zoological Society, and the Department of Physics, The City College of the College of the City of New York |
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| Abstract: | In the main electric organs of the electric eel, the cross-sectional area, the thickness of the electroplaxes, and certain electrical characteristics of the tissue vary widely between the anterior and posterior ends. However, a transverse layer of the organs one electroplax thick has certain characteristics which are roughly uniform along the organs. These are its volume, its maximum voltage, its maximum current per unit area, and the resistance of unit area at the peak of the discharge. Measurements of the voltage developed by a segment of the organs across different external resistances at different instants during the discharge are all rather well described by representing the segment, with the adjacent non-electric tissue, as a simple combination of E.M.F. and ohmic resistance. The internal resistance of the tissue varies during the discharge. Its E.M.F. appears to be practically constant, at least during the greater part of the discharge. Estimates made of the total electric energy show it about equal to the energy supplied by the decrease of phosphocreatine and the formation of lactic acid. |
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