Pii \ sioiAKiicAL EFFECTS OP LACK OF OXYGEN 371 



produce carbon dioxide without containing oxygen tliat can 

 be exhausted by an air pinup. 1 PfUiger" and Aubert 3 have 

 shown the same to be true for the living frog. No one 

 doubts that we are dealing with phenomena of splitting 

 in these cases, which are at the same time the source of 

 and the source for the motions, and the other physi- 



ological functions that go 011 in the vacuum. The differences 

 observed by Spallanzani and Buiige in the length of time 

 that animals live without oxygen may therefore be explained 

 by assuming that different forms of animals contain different 

 amounts of hydrolyzable substances. As soon as this 

 material is used up "the clock stands still." Oxygen plays 

 the role of replacing the substances capable of undergoing 

 splitting which have been used up. 



By calculating the energy obtainable by the hydrolysis 

 and by the oxidation. of carbohydrates Buiige has rendered 

 it probable that in the higher animals the production of 

 [Kiwerful work is not caused by hydrolysis alone, but by 

 hydrolysis and oxidation. According to this, lack of oxygen 

 could at once reduce the capacity for w r ork of an animal by 

 limiting it to the energy which can be obtained from 

 hydrolysis. 



Hoppe-Seyler was the first to suggest a chemical theory 

 for the processes of oxidation which occur in the living organ- 

 ism. 4 He believes that, as in the process of putrefaction, 

 reducing substances (such as hydrogen in the nascent state) 

 are formed in all living cells through hydrolysis, and that 

 these substances, when atmospheric oxygen is present, tear 

 apart the oxygen molecule. The free oxygen atom is then 

 in the condition in \vhich it is able to bring about the oxida- 



1 Untersuchungen ilher den Htoffwechsel tier Muskeln (Berlin, 1867). 



2 Pflugers Archiv, Vol. \. : Ibid., Vol. XXVI. 



4 At the time I wroto this paper I was not familiar with tin- papers of Traube on 

 th>- -ubject, which seem to tfivo a more adequate pre.M-ntatinn <>l the subject t liau 

 Hoppe-Se\ ler'- hypothesis. [liKJ.'iJ 



