Listening to the Body Electric - continued...

The telephone (T) as part of the experimentational setup of electrophysiology, taken from Wedensky. 1900. Die fundamentalen Eigenschaften des Nerven unter Einwirkung einiger Gifte. Pflügers Archiv für die gesammte Physiologie des Menschen und der Thiere 82, p. 140

However, the telephone was not sent into immediate retirement. In 1900, the Russian researcher Nikolai Wedensky (1852 - 1922) continued to defend "the telephonic method" as "virtually irreplaceable" (Wedensky 1900, p. 139). According to Wedensky, the telephone provided the unique possibility of quickly comparing action currents in different locations of the muscle or nerve under observation. "In the study of every complicated process in the nerve fiber it is necessary to use the muscle, the telephone, and the galvanometer. Every one of these devices is speaking in its own language and appears to be a good witness under certain conditions and a weak one under others" (Wedensky 1900, p. 189).

As this statement makes clear, physiologists did not care much about the actual modality of the data obtained in the course of their experiments, as long as the phenomena proved to be interesting. The telephone was used to verify whether or not electrical instruments worked, to determine the appropriate place for attaching the electrodes, to identify errors in the setup of the experiment, and to display electrical data. It was multi-functional and incorporated significant practical knowledge.