346 RALPH S. LILLIE. 



of the proteins of the tissue. 1 It seems clear that anaesthetics 

 may directly inhibit oxidation-catalysis in tissues. But the 

 objection again rises that the concentrations required for these 

 effects greatly exceed those required for anaesthesia in living cells. 

 The relation of oxidases to cell-respiration is still obscure. 

 Present opinion inclines to the belief that these bodies are 

 essentially peroxide-forming compounds (oxygenases) which are 

 activated by other accessory substances present in cells. These 

 bodies (activators or co-enzymes) may be other organic com- 

 pounds (peroxidases) ; it appears also that in some cases inorganic 

 salts, especially iron salts, may play this role (cf. Warburg). 2 

 There is some evidence that the combination of haemoglobin 

 with oxygen is of the nature of a peroxide; both haemoglobin and 

 haematin may cause bluing of guaiac and exhibit other oxidase- 

 like properties. 3 Compounds which form unstable peroxide-like 

 unions with oxygen are regarded by certain investigators as 

 forming the essentially irritable part of the cell; the temporary 

 stabilization of such compounds by any physical or chemical 

 influence would thus be equivalent to anaesthetization. This 

 view has recently been supported in this country by Mathews; 4 

 he regards anaesthesia as resulting from the formation of chemical 

 unions between the anaesthetic and protoplasm; these unions are 

 due to the residual valences of the anaesthetic (i. e., the reserve 

 powers of union left over in many compounds after the ordinary 

 valences are satisfied, as seen in the formation of double salts, 

 hydrates, etc.) ; the number of residual valences is variable, but 

 tends to be higher in compounds with well-marked anaesthetic 

 property. Mathews finds a general though not complete parallel- 

 ism between the number of such valences in a compound and its 

 narcotic power. He proposes the following explanation of anaes- 



1 Cf. Moore and Roaf, loc. oil. But Meyerhof (Pfluger's Archiv, 1914, Vol. 157, 

 p. 273) finds that anaesthetics, in concentrations of the anaesthetizing or inhibiting 

 order, have no influence on the osmotic pressure of protein solutions. This ob- 

 servation appears to be incompatible with the view that anaesthetics act by altering 

 the aggregation-state of proteins. 



" Zeitschr.f. physiol. Chem., 1914, Vol. 92, p. 231. 



3 Cf. Moitessier, Compt. Rend. Soc. Biol., 1904, Vol. n, p. 373; Czylharz and 

 Fiirth, Beitr. zur chem. Physiol. u. Path., 1907, Vol. 10, p. 358; McClendon, Journ. 

 Biol. Chem., 1915, Vol. 21, p. 275. 



4 A. P. Mathews, Internal. Zeitschr.f. physik-chem. Biol., 1914, Vol. i, p. 433. 



