76 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ELECTRICALLY 

 CHAEGED MOLECULES.* 



Bt Professor JACQUES LOEB, 



UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. 



"TT^IVE years ago I published a series of papers on the physiological 

 -*- effects of the electric current which impressed upon me the 

 long-known fact that the galvanic current is the most universal and 

 effective stimulus for life phenomena. This fact suggested to me the 

 idea that it should be possible to influence life phenomena just as 

 universally and effectively by the electrically charged molecules — the 

 ions — as we can influence them by the electric current. From that 

 time on the whole working force of my laboratory was devoted to the 

 investigation of the physiological effects of ions. 



My first aim was to find out whether or not it is possible to alter the 

 physiological properties of tissues by artificially changing the propor- 

 tion of ions contained in these tissues. In this way originated the 

 investigations on the effect of ions upon the absorption of water by 

 muscles, the effects of ions upon the rhythmical contractions of 

 muscles, and medusae, the heart of the turtle, and the lymph hearts 

 of the frogs, the role of ions in chemotropic phenomena and the in- 

 fluence of ions upon embryonic development, and the development 

 of unfertilized eggs (artificial parthenogenesis). Those who have 

 followed my work on artificial parthenogenesis may have noticed 

 that from the start I aimed at bringing about artificial partheno- 

 genesis through ions. It seemed to me that I could not find any 

 better test for my idea that the electrically charged ions influence life 

 phenomena most effectively than by causing unfertilized eggs to 

 develop by slightly altering the proportion of ions contained in them. 

 I believe that all these experiments proved what I expected they 

 would prove, namely, that by slightly changing the proportion of 

 ions in a tissue we can alter its physiological properties. 



The next step taken consisted in proving that it was indeed 

 the electrical character of the ion that determined its specific efficiency. 



* ' Studies on the physiological effects of the valency and possibly the elec- 

 trical charges of ions ' : Introduction and conclusion on theoretical considera- 

 tions (the footnotes being omitted) of Part I. 'The toxic and antitoxic effects 

 of ions as a function of their valency and possibly their electrical charge,' 

 originally printed in the American Journal of Physiology. From the Hull 

 Physiological Laboratory of the University of Chicago. 



