THE THEORY OF ANESTHESIA. 317 



amoeboid movement; 1 protoplasmic rotation in plant cells; 2 all 

 processes depending on response to stimulation, like muscular 

 contraction and stimulation and conduction in nerve; automatic 

 rhythmical activities like the heart beat or the motion of cilia 

 or spermatozoa; cell-division; 3 the artificial initiation of develop- 

 ment in unfertilized eggs; 4 the stimulating, cytolytic or other 

 physiological action of salt solutions; 5 various fermentative and 

 oxidative processes;" light-production, e. g., by luminous bac- 

 teria; 7 typical metabolic processes like the assimilation of carbon 

 dioxide by plants; 8 growth processes in plants and animals, and 

 developmental processes dependent on growth and cell-division. 

 It is especially worthy of note that not only motor activity and 

 responsiveness are subject to control of this kind, but also 

 processes like growth and development. The growth of seedlings 

 may be temporarily arrested by ether in sufficient concentration, 

 as Claude Bernard showed. 9 Cell-division in the eggs of sea- 

 urchins is checked by anaesthetics in concentrations of the same 

 order as those required for neuro-muscular anaesthesia in Areni- 

 cola larvae. 10 It is thus not surprising that developmental 



1 Cf. Hamburger: loc. cit. 



2 Cf. H. Nothmann-Zuckerkandl: Biochem. Zeitschr., 1912, Vol. 45, p. 412. 



3 Cf. (e. g.) my observations on anaesthesia of cleavage in sea-urchin eggs, 

 Journ. Biol. Chem., 1914, Vol. 17, p. 121. The development of astral radiations in 

 dividing egg-cells is prevented by etherization, and existing radiations are sup- 

 pressed: cf. E. B. Wilson: Arch. f. Entwicklungsmechanik, 1901, Vol. 13, p. 353. 



4 R. S. Lillie, Journ. Ex per. Zool, 1914, Vol. 16, p. 591. 



6 Cf. my papers on antagonisms between salts and anaesthetics; Amer. Journ. 

 Physiol., 1912, Vol. 29, p. 372; Vol. 30, p. i; 1913. Vol. 31, p. 255. 



6 Cf. the papers of Warburg: Zeitschr if t /. physiol. Chemie, 1910, Vol. 69, p. 452, 

 and Vol. 70, 1911, p. 413; Pfliiger's Arch., 1914, Vol. 155, p. 547; Warburg and 

 Wiesel, 1912, Vol. 144, p. 472; Usui, ibid., 1912, Vol. 147, p. TOO; Meyerhof, 

 Pfliige/s Archiv, 1914, Vol. 157, p. 251. Claude Bernard describes the reversible 

 inhibition of yeast-fermentation by anaesthetics (cf. footnote 9, below). 



7 E. N. Harvey, BIOLOGICAL BULLETIN, 1915, Vol. 29, p. 308. 



8 Cf. Claude Bernard, loc. cit.; Overton, "Studien iiber die Narkose," p. 182. 



9 Loc. cit. In Bernard's address, "La Sensibilite," given in 1876 before the 

 French Association for the Advancement of Science, and published in his book, 

 "La Science Experimentale," Paris, 1890, he cites instances of anaesthesia of the 

 most various vital processes, including photosynthesis, germination and growth 

 in plants, fermentation by yeast, development of the hen's egg, and concludes: 

 "We may say that everything living is sensitive and can be anaesthetized; whatever 

 is not sensitive is not living and cannot be anaesthetized "(p. 224). 



10 R. S. Lillie, Journ. Biol. Chem., 1914, Vol. 17, p. 121. 



