OIL-WATER PARTITION EFFECTS I05 



etc. Consequently the parallel between air- water sur- 

 face tension and narcotic effect noted by Traube is 

 quite likely to be fortuitous. 

 3. As Meyer has shown, some narcotics have no action 

 on the air-water surface tension, for example methane 

 and nitrous oxide are both without action upon the 

 air-water surface tension, although they can exercise 

 apotent narcotic effect. It is, therefore, clear that whilst 

 some narcotics may exercise their effects upon an inter- 

 face having properties similar to the air-water interface, 

 other narcotics must act in a quite different manner. 

 Consequently one can conclude that a simple theory 

 of absorption such as that of Traube is unlikely to be 

 of major importance, except in peculiar cases. This how- 

 ever, must not blind us to the fact that adsorption at 

 interfaces may indeed be a very important part of the 

 action of many narcotics. But if so the mechanism is not 

 so simple as Traube has suggested. 



Theories based on oil-water partition effects 



A number of workers have put forward the hypothesis 

 that many narcotic substances exercise their physiolo- 

 gical effect by virtue of changes which occur in the or- 

 ganisation of essential structures of the cell as a result 

 of the dissolving of the narcotics in oily phases which 

 are part of these structures. For example, suppose we 

 consider the substances 



