422 Colchicine 



hydrate, acenaphthene, and arsenic may have deserved more detailed 

 studies. Colchicine was investigated from such diverse standpoints 

 because it was not only a mitotic poison like others, but also an ideal 

 tool for the study of growth, and, last but not least, the best poly- 

 ploidogenic agent in plants. As the creation of new polyploid species 

 was taken up with enthusiasm, chemists and morphologists studied 

 more and more the structure and the properties of the alkaloid. It is 

 probably more than mere chance that the vmique structme of this 

 tropolone derivative is associated with so many physiological activities. 

 It is reasonable to prophesy that colchicine will long retain its 

 prominent place in the vast chapter of mitotic poisons. Many ob- 

 servations point towards a high degree of specificity in the reactions 

 between the alkaloid and the spindle; if these reactions covdd be 

 properly imderstood, that fimdamental process of all growth and 

 evolution, mitosis, would appear in a new light. 



REFERENCES 



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13. Bucher, O. Zur Kenntnis der mitose. IX. Die Wirkung von .\rsenik auf 

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