Harold S. Burr

Later reviews cite Burr first for work on plants. Burr and Sinnott (1944) are credited with showing that electric field patterns in fruits correlate with the development of their morphology¹. Tyler places this among other plant findings, such as currents that precede root emergence and electrically negative meristem tissue. From such observations, Burr, Sinnott and others are said to have proposed that the biological patterns of life are the visible expression of an underlying bioelectrical pattern. The wording quoted is Sinnott's (1960)².

Silver and Nelson treat Burr and Northrop (1935) as part of an older line, with Mathews (1903), holding that electrical patterns regulate growth and form of the organism as a whole. They go beyond what Galvani showed for muscle and excitable cells. In their account, modern experiments on development support this historical hypothesis. Tyler likewise links the older proposal to Levin's description of bioelectric patterning as a prepattern, a template of shape, though that link is Tyler's framing²³.

McMillen and colleagues cite Burr (1941) for the finding that tumors differ in potential from surrounding normal tissue, detectable at the tumor surface⁴. Funk gives a methodological reason why such work was slow to enter mainstream biology. Burr is named among those, with du Bois-Reymond, Becker and Nordenström, who worked when only single-electrode measurements were possible. Vibrating, self-calibrating electrodes later allowed sub-millimeter measurement⁵.