784 
OverTON ') tries to explain these facts by assuming: 
“dass die Grenzschichten des Protoplasts von einer Substanz 
imprägniert sind, deren Lösungsvermögen fiir verschiedene Verbin- 
dungen mit denjenigen eines fetten Oeles nahe übereinstimmt….” 
The permeability of the cell-wall to some compound resp. the 
nareotic action of this compound on the cell, would now be deter- 
mined by the distribution coefficient “plasma skin fatty substance” 
— water of this compound; as this distribution coefficient cannot 
be determined ®) by the experiment (at any rate not with any degree 
of certainty) (see below), the distribution coefficient olive ot/-water 
is used in its stead, in which it is then assumed that there exists 
a perfect parallelism — not to say proportionality — between these 
two distribution coefficients for different substances. 
Also Hans H. Meyer’), who at the same time came to a similar 
theory of narcosis quite independently of Overton, based his con- 
siderations on the distribution coefficient olive oil-water of the 
examined compounds. 
2. We bave now determined the solubility for three organic acids 
(benzoic acid, salicylic acid and cinnamic acid) at 25°.0 C. in a 
number of very carefully refined fatty oils. The results of these 
determinations — a fuller discussion of which will appear in the 
Centralbl. f. Bakteriologie — are recorded in the subjoined table: 
TABLE I. 
| Solubility in grams per 100 grams of oil. 
‘Cotton-seed oil. 
| Olive oil. Arachis oil I. | Arachis oil IL. 
cinnamic acid 1.29 1.44 1.62 1.42 
salicylic acid 2.43 2.55 2.82 2.39 
benzoic acid 3.96 4.22 4.78 3.98 
Cocoanut oil. | Linseed oil. Ricinus oil. 
cinnamic acid Pa 1.66 1558 
salicylic acid 3.18 3.42 14.81 
benzoic acid 4.98 4.27 14.70 
1) ibid. 
*) Vgl. OveRTON: Studien über die Narkose (Jena 1901) pag. 54, 69. 
3) Archiv. f. exper. Pathol. und Pharmacologie 42, 109 (1899); 46, 338 (1901) 
— Baum: ibid. 42, 119 (1899). 
