LIPOID-ALTERANT SUBSTANCES 203 



probably does not cover the entire range of phenomena 

 included under narcosis. 



INFLUENCE OF ORGANIC NARCOTICS ON THE 

 CHEMICAL REACTIONS IN PROTOPLASM 



The fact that narcotic compounds arrest spontaneous 

 activity, and in general act as depressants of vital 

 processes and of irritability, shows that they interfere 

 with the energy-yielding chemical reactions of proto- 

 plasm. The essential problem relates to the means by 

 which this effect is produced, whether it is primary or 

 secondary; i.e., there are the alternative possibilities: 

 (i) that the primary action may be a modification of the 

 structural conditions on which the chemical reactions 

 depend; and (2) that the reactions themselves may be in- 

 fluenced directly; e.g., by some form of anticatalytic action. 



Warburg and his associates have made an extensive 

 study of the influence of narcotizing compounds on the 

 oxygen consumption of Kving cells, and the results of 

 this work show many striking parallels with those already 

 described. The cells used in the various determinations 

 included sea-urchin eggs, erythrocytes (chiefly of birds), 

 yeast, lymphocytes (from thymus), spermatozoa (of 

 fishes), liver cells (of frog and mouse), and bacteria 

 (Vibrio, Staphylococcus, Bacillus Typhi) .^ In all cases 

 the rate of oxygen consumption was decreased, reversibly, 

 in the presence of a sufficient concentration of anaesthetic. 

 The facts point in general to some kind of physical rather 

 than specifically chemical interference with the oxidation 

 reactions. Thus the effect produced by a particular 

 compound is largely independent of the chemically 



' For a summary of this earlier work of Warburg, see Milnch. med. 

 Wochenschr., LVIII (191 1), 289; also Warburg and Wiesel, loc. cit. 



