The Oxygen Uptake of Active Axons

Any specialized functional property of an axon is the resultant of many coordinated and inter,-locking physical and chemical processes. For example, the conduction of the action current is an electrochemical process that is followed by an increased uptake of oxygen and output of heat and carbon dioxide. We may expect that a quan-titative study of such processes in axons will lead to some insight into the mechanisms by which chemical processes, those common to all animal cells, are connected with specialized cellular properties. The experimental studies reported in this paper are the detailed examination of some characteristics of the chain of processes con-necting impulse conduction in axons with oxygen