Reflex rhythm induced by concurrent excitation and inhibition

Abstract
In a paper on “Antagonism between Reflex Inhibition and Reflex Excitation,” Sherrington has shown that the combined effects of excitatory and inhibitory stimuli produce a response intermediate between those of the two stimuli acting singly. Prof. Cannon, of Harvard, called my attention to certain minute oscillations which occur in Sherrington’s myograph line where it represents the response of muscle to the combined effects of the opposed stimuli, and suggested that these might have an important significance. They might mean that the nerve impulses in breaking through the opposition imposed by inhibition were subjected to a condition analogous to a stream of air passing out from a tube under water. It seemed possible that just as the air bubbles will be larger and more infrequent if the opening of the tube be deeply submerged than if near the surface, so the nerve impulses might be rendered more intense and more infrequent in overcoming the opposing influence of inhibition. On account of the impossibility of recording nerve impulses with the myograph I have planned to investigate the question by electrical methods. But in the course of another series of experiments I have obtained records whose bearing on the problem renders them of interest.

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