VOLUME LXVII NUMBER 5 



THE 



Botanical Gazette 



MAY igig 



effect of anesthetics upon respiration 



A. R. C. Haas 



(with seven figures) 



The special interest which this subject has acquired, as the 

 result of certain modern theories, makes it desirable to give a brief 

 review of some of the more important contributions (5, 10) to 

 our knowledge of it. ' 



Meyer (19) and Overton (21) independently concluded that 

 the effect of a narcotic increases with its solubility in substances 

 of a lipoid nature. According to them narcosis does not appear 

 until the lipoids of the cells have absorbed the narcotic to a 

 definite molecular concentration (21). The theory has been criti- 

 cized (5, 10) because it fails to explain why narcotics, such as 

 benzamide and monacetin, which at higher temperature are less 

 soluble in fat, have an eft'ect which increases with the temperature. 

 Both Meyer and Overton recognize the fact that often there is 

 no relation between the narcotic power of a substance and its rela- 

 tive solubility in oil; the partition quotient for isobutyl alcohol 

 is about 180 times greater than for ethyl alcohol, but its power to 

 cause narcosis is only about 6 times as great as that of ethyl alcohol. 

 They state that such cases cannot be used as arguments against 

 the lipoid theory in case the narcotic is not chemically indift'erent, 

 but has a special reaction affinity, as is the case, for example, with 

 the basic narcotics. 



Verworn (29) has advocated the view that narcotics interfere 

 with the oxygen carriers of the cell and render them incapable of 



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