PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFICIENCY OF ACIDS 



139 



In this case then the paradoxical result is obtained that 

 one-thousandth normal butyric acid is more effective in causing 

 membrane formation than one-twelfth normal hydrochloric 

 acid! A blind opponent of the dissociation theory could wish 

 for no more striking material than that here adduced. Yet 

 it would be a serious mistake to make use of these results 

 against the theory of electrolytic dissociation. 



TABLE XXIV 



The disagreement of the facts here mentioned with the dis- 

 sociation theory is only an apparent one and finds its solution 

 in the consideration of the following two facts. In the first 

 place, with regard to the causing of membrane formation, only 

 the mass of acid that has actually entered the egg comes into 

 consideration ; and secondly, the velocity with which the different 

 acids enter the egg is a function of their chemical constitution. 



If this is true, we should find indications that the connections 

 mentioned above between the constitution and physiological 

 effect of acids in reality show relations between constitution 

 and the rapidity of absorption of the acids by the egg. We 

 will produce two proofs of this, one indirect and the other direct. 

 The indirect evidence consists in the fact that the effects of the 

 homologous alcohols in the experiments of Overton, Fiihner 

 and Neubauer are analogous to the effects of the fatty acids 

 in ours. Now Hans Meyer as well as Overton has pointed out 

 that the activity of the alcohols runs parallel to their coefficient 

 of partition between lipoid and water. The relative physio- 

 logical activity of the alcohols must therefore be determined 



