NATURE OF PROTOPLASMIC RESPIRATION. 34! 



The views expressed in this paper may be harmonized with 

 those in a previous paper in which the oxidations and reductions 

 going on in protoplasm were regarded as electrical, 1 if the follow- 

 ing explanation of the dissociation of NH 4 OH into NH 3 and 

 H 2 O be adopted. At present no clear connection between ionic 

 dissociation and such dissociations as that of ammonia has been 

 established. The relation of the two processes may be the fol- 

 lowing, if Thompson's electron hypothesis be adopted. 



In sodium chloride the sodium and chlorine are held together 

 by the affinity each has for a negative electron. Na 9 Cl. 

 On going into aqueous solution the atoms separate and chlorine 

 having the greater affinity for the electron (+ 1.965 volts to 

 2. 54 volts for the sodium in normal solution) takes it away from 

 the sodium. The sodium being thus left with an unsaturated 

 affinity for a negative charge becomes a positive ion ; the chlor- 

 ine with a free negative charge becomes a negative ion. The 

 free charges being on separate atoms and free to move the solu- 

 tion conducts the current. In the albumin molecule of am- 

 photer reaction hydrogen ions are dissociated at one place ; hy- 

 droxyl at another. A free positive charge and a free negative 

 charge reside on the same molecule though on different atoms. 

 The albumin molecule may, therefore, be unable to take part in 

 the conduction of the current although ionized. 



+ + 



H- 6 albumin 6 OH 



In the nitrogen atom as it exists in ammonia the opposite 

 charges are on the same atom. The condition may be repre- 

 sented as follows where nitrogen is trivalent. 



H-e x x 

 H e^(N)>e z 

 H e/ y 



If N is the nitrogen atom it has three valencies satisfied by 

 hydrogen. At .rand y, two points on its surface, there is a posi- 

 tive charge not entirely compensated by the atom itself. This 

 charge is compensated by the electron z. This electron may be 

 regarded as holding together the two parts of the nitrogen atom 

 at x and r, just as the electron held together the separate atoms 



1 Mathews, Anier. Journal of Physiology, 1904, X., p. 290. 



