110
The Body Electric
on ceremony or position, and I thought I could talk to him frankly. I
gathered up reprints of my papers and went to his office.
"Sir," I began, "I've been doing research on direct current electrical
effects in living things for the past four years. I've gotten some papers
published in good journals, and I think this is an important piece of
work. Nevertheless, I have great difficulty getting funds from the VA.
My requests are blocked by the politicians on the committee. Meanwhile
these same guys are spending five times as much as I get, and they don't
publish a damn thing." I'm afraid I got carried away, but Dean Jacobsen
just sat there listening until I'd finished.
"Have you done any experiments on the DC activity of the nervous
system?" he asked.
This was an unexpected question, but I told him of our work on
salamanders and frog nerves.
It turned out he'd done some research on nerves years ago—with
Ralph Gerard! He was very enthusiastic. "You've gone much further
than we ever did," he told me. "We never thought to relate the brain
currents to a total-body system. How much do you need?"
I asked for $25,000 in each of the next two years, but explained that
it had to be earmarked for me alone or I would never see it.
"Don't worry," he said. "Go right back to your lab. I'll get it for you.
I wish I could work with you."
He must have been dialing Washington as the door closed behind me,
for the next day the chief of research got a telegram from the VA Central
Office authorizing the requested amount for me, and only me. He
couldn't understand it, and I professed complete ignorance, too.
I figured nothing I did now could make the research director like me
any less, so I made another move. I went to the hospital director and told
him I needed more space. Having heard of my favor from Washington, he
was most helpful, and soon I had a suite of rooms on the top floor.
Suddenly a whole new realm of research was within reach. Charlie and
I hardly knew which way to turn. Our first and most important step was
to hire Andy Marino as a technician. The salary meant much to him,
and his intelligence and dedication meant even more to us. We were on
our way.
The Electromagnetic Brain
If the current controlled the way nerves worked in the brain as well as in
the rest of the body, then it must regulate consciousness to some extent.