A quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve

Abstract

This article concludes a series of papers concerned with the flow of electric current through the surface membrane of a giant nerve fibre (Hodgkinet al., 1952,J. Physiol.116, 424-448; Hodgkin and Huxley 1952,J. Physiol.116, 449-566). Its general object is to discuss the results of the preceding papers (Section 1), to put them into mathematical form (Section 2) and to whow that they will account for conduction and excitation in quantitative terms (Sections 3-6).