28 J. WILLIAM BUCHANAN 



oxidations attendant upon section was appreciably inhibited. 

 This inhibition of oxidative activity has been assigned a causal 

 role in the changes in head frequency produced in such experi- 

 ments. But in mol. 1/10 alcohol, which produces similar changes 

 in head frequency, the rate of oxygen consumption is higher than 

 that of the control pieces. This fact appears to conflict with 

 the conclusions drawn from the inhibitory effects of the other 

 anesthetics on the increase in rate of oxidations following section 

 unless a strong probability can be shown that the increase in oxy- 

 gen consumption in pieces subjected to alcohol solutions is 

 different in character from the stimulation of the oxidative pro- 

 cesses by section, and that there are sound reasons for believing 

 that this form of metabolic activity in the Y region of the pieces 

 does not exert an influence over the X region and vice versa. 



In searching for some explanation of the relatively high rate 

 of oxygen consumption of pieces subjected immediately after 

 section to narcotizing solutions of ethyl alcohol as compared to 

 the rate of the controls, work with intact animals produced some 

 data that are extremely suggestive. Forty experiments were 

 performed. The data are too voluminous to be given here, but 

 may be briefly summarized as follows: If whole animals are 

 subjected to highly narcotizing solutions of alcohol, mol. 1/4 

 or mol. 1/5, for four hours, their rate of oxygen consumption 

 rises during the first two hours and falls during the second two 

 hours, the fall probably being due to the injurious effect of such 

 solutions, for if the treatment is continued death soon follows. 

 If the animals are transferred to water after a four-hour exposure 

 to such solutions, their rate of oxygen consumption rises very 

 rapidly and the high rate continues for nearly seventy-two hours. 

 This rise after return to water is probably due to the oxidation 

 of a quantity of alcohol retained in the tissues. Cushny ('10) 

 states that in the human body at least 95 per cent of the alco- 

 hol taken in is oxidized. If whole worms are starved in the 

 presence of mol. 1/10 alcohol, a concentration producing marked 

 anesthesia for the first iew days, their rate of oxygen consumption 

 rises cumulatively for weeks. At the end of six weeks the rate 

 of small worms is 500 per cent that of their control in water. 



