LIFE WITHOUT OXYGEN 121 



As a conclusion to his work, already cited, Putter makes the 

 following observations to a similar effect : 



" As a result of comparative physiological studies of the 

 significance of oxygen in life, we may now lay down the rule 

 that, in general, respiration is a cleavage respiration and that 

 in the absence of (free) oxygen the energy of the organism 

 is supplied by hydrolytic changes. The utilisation of oxygen 

 in functional metabolism, through which a much broader elimi- 

 nation of the respiratory materials is made possible, represents 

 rather a specialisation; this, it is true, is very widely distri- 

 buted and of very great practical importance but it should 

 not lead us so greatly to overvalue it as to obscure the general 

 rule, for the general rule is anaerobiosis " (I.e.). 



From his work on the respiration of plants W. Palladin 

 comes to the same conclusion. He says : 



"As long as observers confined themselves to living plants, 

 it was always possible to talk of ' adaptations ' to special con- 

 ditions, such as the artificial subtraction of oxygen and offer 

 this as an objection to Pfeffer's theory. But it is difficult to 

 imagine ' adaptability ' in dead plants. If dead plants are 

 capable of producing carbon dioxide after the withdrawal of 

 oxygen, we must admit that the same interactions take place 

 in life, in the presence of oxygen. On the basis of these 

 researches on dead plants, it may be regarded as proven that 

 the process of anaerobic cleavage is the primary process in 

 respiration and that it is brought about by enzymes." 1 



Finally we have a series of decisive experiments by E. J. 

 Lesser, 2 offering conclusive proof that " the production of 

 carbonic acid by the frog in the absence of oxygen is not due 

 to the presence of ' stored up ' oxygen as was so long believed." 

 In other words it seems clear enough from all this mass of 

 work that free oxygen is not concerned in the fundamental 

 chemical processes of the cell and that the sooner we get rid 

 of this long-lived obsession the sooner we shall gain a clear 

 insight into the nature of the primitive life process. 



It is to be noted that in Winterstein's work special attention 

 was paid to the relation of oxidation to the nervous system. 

 If there be one form of tissue whose functional activity seems 



1 " Die Einheit d. Atmung," Arch. f. d. Ausbau. d. Entw. lekre, 203, 3, 1909. 

 Cf. Biochem. Zeit. 151, 18, 1909. 



2 Zeit.f. Biol. 287, 51, 1908. 



