AUGUST 19, 1921 ALSBERG : PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY 331 



meability has not been generally accepted, so the Overton-Meyer 

 lipoid theory of narcosis is not accepted universally. Traube believes 

 surface tension effect and not lipoid solubility is the main factor and 

 others believe that adsorption of the narcotic by the nerve cell is the 

 main factor.-^ This is not the place to discuss these hypotheses other 

 than to point out that none of them considers the chemical structure 

 of the narcotic molecule as of moment except in so far as the chemical 

 structure of the molecule determines its physical properties. 



We may therefore fairly assume that in the case of the indifferent 

 narcotics we have an apparently specific action upon a specific organ, 

 the nervous system, dependent quite as much upon the physical 

 properties of the narcotic as upon its chemical structure. The older 

 pharmacologists would have said that the narcotic acts upon the 

 nervous system specifically because the nerve cell or the nerve cell 

 protoplasm contains a specific chemical group which has a special 

 affinity for the narcotic and combines or reacts with it. 



Now these theories of narcosis explain why the nervous system 

 attracts the narcotic, in other words, they give a simple physical 

 explanation for the distribution of the narcotic within the body. 

 They do not tell us in the least what the narcotic does after it accumu- 

 lates in the cells. Concerning the nature of the action of the narcotic 

 after it has accumulated within a cell a number of theories have been 

 advanced. We have not yet enough experimental data to reach 

 a decision and there is hardly time tonight for a full discussion of 

 them. However it will be of interest to indicate the general character 

 of some of them: — if protoplasm is essentially an emulsion or gel, 

 one of the phases of which is oil-like, then the solution of the narcotic 

 in the oil phase must greatly affect the character of this phase and its 

 surface phenomena.^" There will inevitably be a tendency to change 

 the permeability of the membranes at the interfaces with a tendency 

 to the redistribution of the protoplasmic components to conform to 

 new conditions. The tendency must be to change the composition 

 of the phases relatively. If the narcotic enters into adsorption 

 combinations with components of the cell this too must alter the 

 relative composition of the phases. If the adsorption be upon enzyme 

 molecules the functioning of the cell would be disturbed correspond- 

 ingly.^^ In either event, whether the narcotic dissolves in the oil 



28 H. WiNTERSTEIN, op. cit. 



30 H. Meyer. Zur Theorie der Alkohol-narkose. I Mittheilung. Arch. exp. Path. u. 

 Pharmakol. 42: 112. 1899. 



31 H. WiNTERSTEIN, op. cit. p. 276, ff. 



