ANAEROBIC RESPIRATION 57 



Direct calorimetric measurements carried out by Eriksson^ 

 showed that the production of heat by anaerobic respiration is 

 utterly trifling and, in complete agreement with theoretical 

 calculation, amounts to but a small fraction of that of normal 

 respiration. 



Yet it is worthy of note that the influence of various circum- 

 stances on the normal and the anaerobic respiration is identical. 

 Thus Amm- made the interesting observation that in the yellow 

 lupine the value of I/N remains constant at various stages of 

 germination, if the anaerobiosis does not continue too long. 

 Since the intensity of the normal respiration in the course of 

 the period of germination is expressed (see page 6) by the 

 so-called grand curve of respiration, it may be concluded that 

 with increased vital activity not only normal respiration 

 becomes more energetic but also the anaerobic respiration in 

 corresponding measure.^ This is a new proof of the fact that 

 the anaerobic respiration represents not a pathological phenom- 

 enon but a process connected with the normal respiratory 

 metabohsm. We could easily draw the same conclusion from 

 the experimental results of Chudiakow^ and Palladin.^ 

 Chudiakow has shown that the value of I /N remains constant 

 at various temperatures, since the rate of anaerobic respiration is 

 influenced by changes in temperature in the same degree as that 

 of normal respiration.^ Also, no optimum temperature can be 

 stated for the anaerobic any more than for normal respiration, 

 according to Chudiakow's results. Still more interesting is the 

 following fact which appears through the recalculation of 

 Chudiakow's figures r^ as long as the rate of anaerobic respira- 



' Kriksson. Untersuch. aus d. bot. Inst. Tubingen i : 636. 1881-1885. 



2 Amm. Jahrb. f. wiss. Bot. 25: I- 1893. 



3 Chudiakow, N. Landwirtschaftl. Jahrb. 23: 33i- i894- 

 * Palladia, W. Rev. gen. de bot. 6: 201. 1894. 



5 For this point cf. S. Kostytschew. Untersuch. uber die anaerobe -A.tmung der Pflanzen. 

 1907. P. 23. Russian. 



!' Two Other items of proof for this point are contained in recent papers. 

 Lyon (J. Gen. Physiol. 6: 299-306. 1923-24) found the two phases of respira- 

 tion of wheat seedhngs to be equally accelerated by phosphate while Miss A. 

 Karlsen (Am. Jour. Bot. 12: 619-624. 1925) obtained similar results for the 

 action of anesthetics on wheat seedlings. — Ed. 



-' Compare, however, the recent studies by Crozier on the influence of tem- 

 perature, as mentioned in editorial note j above. — Ed. 



