1915] 



MERRILL ELECTROLYTIC DETERMINATION OF EXOSMOSIS 565 



theoretically and also accord with the experimental results 

 would seem to be based on the specificity of chemical reaction. 

 The cell, with its complex aggregation of chemical substances, 

 may be considered as interacting with the substance employed, 

 be it anesthetic, toxic agent, salt solution, or other chemical. 

 It may be assumed that each substance has a greater affinity 

 (if we may use that tabooed chemical term) for a particular 

 component of the cell than for other constituents and hence 

 reacts accordingly. This was exemplified by the striking com- 

 parison between the effect produced by anesthetics in certain 

 concentrations and that produced by the KC1 or NaCl solution. 

 The exosmosis, it is true, was considerable in both cases, but 

 the resulting appearance of the roots was markedly different, 

 the anesthetics causing indications of flaccidity, while the roots 

 exhibiting quite as much exosmosis in the salt solutions, re- 

 mained practically normal. If we assume that the anesthetic 

 acted upon the colloidal matrix or gel portion of the cell and 

 thus more or less destroyed its organization, while the salts re- 



acted with the substances in the sol condition and left the 

 matrix more or less intact, we would seem to have a basis for 

 explaining the differences observed. 



Anesthesia has been considered by Lillie, Osterhout, and 

 others to be essentially a reversible process, provided that 

 the concentration of the anesthetic was not sufficient to be 

 toxic. The experimental work reported herewith, however, 

 on the excretion of electrolytes induced by various anesthetics 

 does not seem to substantiate that view. If the concentration 

 of the anesthetics employed was below a certain point there 

 was no observable effect whatsoever. By increasing the con- 

 centration the critical point was attained when excretion be- 

 gan, and as the concentration of the anesthetic was further in- 

 creased, or as the period of application was lengthened, excre- 

 tion likewise increased. The excretion process induced by 

 anesthetics therefore conformed in every way to an irrever- 

 sible chemical reaction. In Osterhout *s conductivity measure- 

 ments of tissue, secondary agglutinization phenomena may 

 possibly have entered in to give the observed effects, and thus 

 have masked the real chemical reaction. Recovery of organ- 



