340 proceedings: chemical society 



THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY 

 (Local Section of the American Chemical Society) 



The 224th meeting was held on March 13, 1913 at the George Wash- 

 ington University Medical School. President Waters in the chair. 



Mr. SvERRE GuLBRANDSEN, of the Welsbach Light Company, spoke 

 on Incandescent gas lighting. After reviewing the early history of gas 

 Hghting by incandescent mantles, the speaker described the discoveries 

 of Auer, and the present process of manufacture of mantles. One of 

 the recent improvements in mantle manufacture consists in the use of 

 squirted fibers of soluble cellulose. The properties of the mantle depend 

 primarily upon those of the original supporting fiber. Mantles from arti- 

 ficial fiber show less shrinkage and hence less loss of luminosity, and also 

 less weakening with age, than those from natural fibers. They are also 

 about three times as strong initially, as the lecturer showed experimen- 

 tally. 



The 225th meeting was held at the Cosmos Club on April 11, 1913* 

 Prof. Ralph S. Lillie of the University of Pennsylvania spoke on 

 the. subject. Physico-chemical conditions of anesthetic action. Some con- 

 ditions that produce effects akin to anesthesia are : lowering of tempera- 

 ture, lack of oxygen, mechanical shock, and exposure to electric current. 

 The effect of a steady small current may be to increase or decrease the 

 irritability of nerve or muscle, depending on the effect of the current 

 upon the potential differences at the cell membranes. The plasmal 

 membrane of cells is a very important factor in their reaction toward 

 substances in solution. These membranes are semipermeable with 

 respect to some solutes, and are freely permeable to others, the latter 

 being usually lipoid-soluble substances. Experiments with electric cur- 

 rents of different frequencies give evidence that the seat of the most 

 constant and characteristic phenomenon of irritability, namely, the elec- 

 tric potential difference, lies in the semipermeable membrane of the 

 cell. Change in irritability is also accompanied by a change in the 

 permeability of the membrane. Anesthetic substances change the sus- 

 ceptibility of a membrane to those changes of permeability which are 

 necessary to stimulation. Experiments by the author on marine organ- 

 isms whose cells contain a rapidly diffusing pigment show clearly that 

 the anesthetic effect of certain salts is due to their effect on the sus- 

 ceptibility of the cell membrane to permeability increase and not to 

 their effect on the cell contents. The lipoid-soluble anesthetics, such 

 as ethyl ether, all act in the same way as the salts. It appears that 

 the primary process in stimulation is a membrane process, and the 

 effect of anesthesia is upon this primary process. The chemical expla- 

 nation of this effect is unknown, but may be due to a disturbance of the 

 mutual relations of the colloids of the membrane. 



Discussion. Wells spoke of the many different causes of electric 

 potentials in liquids, and inquired whether oxidation and reduction 

 potentials might not be operative. Professor Lillie replied that a 



