408 MR. A. J. EWART ON ASSIMILATORY INHIBITION. 
assimilation is first weakened and then permanently stopped. 
Even with mosses which are very resistant to asphyxiation similar 
results are finally produced, and, as we have seen above, the 
stoppage of assimilation is not necessarily permanent, but instead 
recovery may take place if the plants are brought under normal 
conditions again. 
Effects of Ether upon Assimilation. 
F. Schwarz *, working with the bubble-counting method, found 
that in a saturated watery solution of ether water-plants cease 
in a few minutes to assimilate and no recovery takes place, the 
specimens having been fatally affected. Similarly, Pringsheim +, 
using the Bacterium method, found that anesthetics such as 
chloroform and ether stop assimilation, but the cells cannot be 
restored to life and the chlorophyll apparatus is changed and 
altered. Bonnier and Mangint, using the gas-analytical method, 
found that with certain Phanerogams, by using a measured 
quantity of ether, assimilation may be stopped whilst respiration 
continues unchecked, thus confirming the results obtained by 
Claude Bernard with chloroformed water-plants (‘ Legons sur les 
phénoménes de la vie,’ 1878, p. 278). 
In the following experiments with Mosses, the plants were 
kept in an atmosphere containing ether vapour for varying 
periods of time. After being kept for 30 minutes and for 1 hour 
under a bell-jar over a saturated solution of ether in water (10 
parts of water to 1 part ether) and then examined in the usual 
method, the three mosses experimented with gave the results 
shown in Table T. Care must be taken that no appreciable 
amount of ether remains adhering to the leaves, as a very slight 
amount of ether is sufficient to inhibit the movement of B. Termo. 
A few seconds’ exposure to air is, however, sufficient to allow of 
the evaporation of all the ether from the leaves examined. 
* F. Schwarz, “Zur Kritik der Methode des Gasblasenzühlens an submersen 
Wasserpflanzen,” in Bot. Untersuch. v. Tübingen, 1881, p. 102. 
+ Pringsheim, “ Ueber die Abhangigkeit der Assimilation griiner Zellen von 
ihrer Sauerstoffathmung,” in Sitzungsberichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften 
zu Berlin, 1887. 
1 Bonnier and Mangin, in Ann. Sc. nat. sér. vii. t. iii. 1886, p. 14. 
