  Close to melting transitions it is possible to propagate solitary
electromechanical pulses which reflect many of the experimental features of the
nerve pulse including mechanical dislocations and reversible heat production.
Here we show that one also obtains the possibility of periodic pulse generation
when the boundary condition for the nerve is the conservation of the overall
length of the nerve. This condition generates an undershoot beneath the
baseline (`hyperpolarization') and a `refractory period', i.e., a minimum
distance between pulses. In this paper, we outline the theory for periodic
solutions to the wave equation and compare these results to action potentials
from the femoral nerve of the locust (locusta migratoria). In particular, we
describe the frequently occurring minimum-distance doublet pulses seen in these
neurons and compare them to the periodic pulse solutions.
