THE THEORY OF ANAESTHESIA. 337 



He has shown that various enzymes (lipase, emulsin, urease, 

 trypsin) retain their activity when suspended in media in which 

 they are insoluble. This fact is best explained on the view that 

 increased concentration of the substrate at the surface of the 

 enzyme particles- is mainly responsible for the increased reaction- 

 velocity in its presence. This view does not explain specificity, 

 which is probably a matter in which selective adsorption and 

 stereochemical conditions enter as factors; but it leads to the 

 general expectation that readily adsorbable, i. e., surface-active, 

 substances will as a class have marked influence on enzyme action. 

 In many organisms oxidations are the chemical processes 

 which are most evidently influenced by narcotics; and the view 

 that narcotic action consists essentially in a suppression of intra- 

 cellular oxidations has gained wide favor, and has been sup- 

 ported chiefly by Verworn in Germany, and by Mathews, 

 Loevenhart and others in America. The view that this anti- 

 oxidative action may be exerted directly upon the oxygen- 

 catalyzers of the cell is supported by Traube. Considerable 

 evidence consists favorable to this view. Thus Warburg finds 

 that inorganic iron salts accelerate oxidations in disintegrated 

 sea-urchin eggs, and he further finds that this accelerative 

 action is checked by urethane. 1 _ This interesting observation 

 suggests the possibility that catalysis by iron plays a part in 

 intracellular oxidations; this catalysis is checked by ansesthetics, 

 and it is to be inferred that oxidative processes under the in- 

 fluence of organic catalyzers or oxidases would be similarly 

 affected. In support of this conception Traube cites various 

 instances where oxidative processes are checked by surface- 

 active or narcotic substances. 2 Such instances include the de- 

 composition of hydrogen peroxide by platinum (Bredig), the 

 oxidation of sodium sulphite by free oxygen (Bigelow, Titoff, 

 Young; Young finds this process checked by traces of morphine, 

 brucine, nicotine, and especially quinine; and Traube even refers 

 the antipyretic action of quinine to its inhibiting action on oxida- 

 tion) ; the oxidation of phosphorus and phosphorus trioxide by 

 free oxygen (Centnerszwer, Scharff) ; oxidation of stannous 

 chloride (Young) ; oxidation by tissue-oxidases (Vernon, Baer 



1 Warburg, Zeitschr.f. physiol. Chem., 1914, Vol. 92, p. 231. 



2 Traube, "Uber Katalyse," Pfluger's Archiv, 1913, Vol. 153, p. 309. 



