195 



The Effect of Alkaloids and Other Vegetable Poisons on 



Protoplasm. 



By Frank Marion Andrews. 



It has not yet been satisfactorily determined whether the protoplasm 

 of plants is affected by alkaloids and other vegetable poisons,* and accord- 

 ingly I have begun an investigation of this subject. I was enabled to 

 begin this work at the Marine Biological Station at Wood's Hole, Mass., 

 during a part of the summer of 1905, through the courtesy of the Carnegie 

 Institution of Washington, D. C, which kindly placed at my disposal one 

 of the rooms which it controls at that place. Naturally only a beginning 

 could be made in this work which I am pursuing further now, but the re- 

 sults thus far obtained are not without interest. 



Many alkaloids are only slightly soluble in cold water, as for example, 

 strychnine, of which only about one part in seven thousand (7,000) is 

 soluble in water. The salts of the alkaloids are, however, much more sol- 

 uble in cold water, both fresh and sea water. 



My first experiments were carried out with strychnine sulphate on 

 volvox. This was found in great abundance in a pond some distance from 

 the station. When the volvox was put in a solution of strychnine sul- 

 phate containing .125 gr. in 875 cc. of fresh water the movement of the 

 plant was at first accelerated, but it was killed by this solution in one 

 hour. The color of the vegetative cells became lighter and when colonies 

 were present these were a little darkened. I then placed a drop of water 

 on the slide and to this I added some crystals of the strychnine sulphate. 

 The volvox individuals at first swam to these dissolving crystals, but 

 coming too near entered a place where the concentration was fatal in five 

 minutes. When put in a solution containing .01 gr. of strychnine sulphate 

 in 100 cc. of water volvox was killed in one hour and thirty minutes. 

 When placed in a solution containing .01 gr. of strychnine sulphate in 

 1,000 cc. of water volvox was killed in one hour and forty-five minutes. 

 At the expiration of twenty-four hours the volvox individuals were per- 

 fectly discolored and disorganized. Distilled water does not affect volvox 

 outside of the effects of nutrition, if properly prepared. 



'Pfeffer Pflanzenphysiologie zweite Auf. 1904, Bd. II, p. 333. 



