344 



RALPH S. LILLIE. 



The facts which offer best support to the oxidation theory of 

 narcosis appear to be those which demonstrate an actual decrease 

 in oxygen-consumption by isolated cells and tissues under the 

 influence of narcotics. Thus Warburg and his associates have 

 shown that oxygen-consumption by living cells of various kinds 

 (red blood-corpuscles, sea-urchin eggs, bacteria, liver-cells, yeast- 

 cells, the central nervous system) is decreased by various anaes- 

 thetics, 1 and the different narcotic compounds show the same 

 order of relative action as in anaesthesia. For example, the 

 several alcohols lower the oxygen-consumption of birds' erythro- 

 cytes by 50 per cent, in solutions of the following concentrations. 2 



TABLE VI. 



It is to be noted that these concentrations are much higher 

 than those usually required for anaesthesia, as comparison with 

 Overton's results (third column) will show. Vernon also found 

 that anaesthetics decreased the oxidation of the indophenol 

 reagent by fresh tissues. An especially interesting fact is that 

 anaesthesia causes a similar though less marked decrease in 

 oxidation by dead cells and by tissue-extracts, as has been 

 demonstrated by both Warburg and Vernon. 3 This suggests 

 that the anaesthetizing influence is exerted directly upon the 

 oxygen-catalyzers of the cell; and recently a number of investi- 

 gators have devoted special study to the inhibiting action of 

 anaesthetics on oxidases. 



1 For a summary of these researches of. Warburg, Miinchen. med. Wochenschr., 



1911, Vol. 58, p. 289; for the case' of isolated tissues cf. Usui, Pfliiger's Archiv, 



1912, Vol. 147, p. 100; for microorganisms, Warburg and Wiesel, loc. cit. 



2 Warburg, Miinchen. med. Wochenschr., loc. cit.; Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chemie, 

 1910, Vol. 69, p. 452. 



3 Warburg and Wiesel, loc. cit.; Vernon, Journ. Physiol., 1912, Vol. 45, p. 197. 



