ON THE ACTION OF CERTAIN SUBSTANCES ON 

 OXYGEN CONSUMPTION. 



III. ACTION OF POTASSIUM CYANIDE ON SOME 

 CCELENTERATES AND ANNELIDS. 



L. H. HYMAN, 

 HULL ZOOLOGICAL LABORATORY, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. 



In this paper are presented some further data concerning the 

 effect of potassium cyanide on the rate of oxygen consumption of 

 animals. In view of the importance of this substance as a 

 reagent in physiological experiments, and since tests of this kind 

 have been made upon comparatively few animals, it has seemed 

 worth while to obtain data upon some representatives of groups 

 in which the action of cyanide has not yet been determined. 

 No experiments have, to my knowledge, been performed upon 

 annelids, and only one ccelenterate has been tested, namely 

 Gonionemus, in which form Loeb -and Wasteneys ('13) showed 

 that potassium cyanide decreases the oxygen consumption to a 

 considerably greater extent than does ethyl urethane, although 

 both produce the same degree of anaesthesia. 



The literature dealing with the chemical, physiological and 

 pharmacological properties of the cyanides and related substances 

 has been extensively reviewed in the second paper of this series 

 (Hyman, '19), and will therefore not be restated here. Briefly, 

 it may be said that this group of substances has been shown to 

 depress many physiological processes; and to decrease the rate 

 of oxygen consumption or carbon dioxide output or both of the 

 following living materials: yeast, a mould Aspergillus, a sponge 

 Suberites, Gonionemus, Planaria, a beetle Passalus cormitus, 

 embryos of Fundulus, several mammals, sea-urchin eggs, red 

 blood corpuscles of geese, isolated mammalian kidneys, the 

 frog's heart, minced beef liver, minced horse, beef, and pigeon 

 muscle, and minced horse brain. In most of these cases it was 

 shown that the effect was reversible. Since that review was 



404 



