1918] 
BONNS—ETHERIZATION AND ENZYME ACTIVITY 247 
abolition of the rest period. A strongly increased respiration 
follows an ether dosage below the injurious or lethal limit. 
Czapek (797) showed that nareotization of the conducting 
tissues of the petioles inhibits the translocation of the organie 
food materials from the leaf. Soave (799) has reported quan- 
titative data showing the effect of ether and of chloroform 
upon germinating seeds of Arachis, Cucurbita, Hordeum, 
Zea, and Pisum, with special reference to respiration and to 
the metabolism of fats and proteins. He concluded that 
anaesthetics inhibited anabolism without suspending catabolic 
processes. Zaleski (’00) made a study of the changes ex- 
erted by ether on the protein content of etiolated seedlings of 
Lupinus angustifolius. From the analyses made it was con- 
cluded that in an ether atmosphere proteolysis is retarded. 
Other experiments with wheat seedlings indicated that ether 
checks loss of glucose and induces a greater transport of this 
sugar from the endosperm to the plant. 
Further studies of the effect of etherization on the relative 
amounts of nitrogen compounds in the axial parts and in 
the cotyledons led him to conclude that in an ether atmosphere 
more proteins either collect in the axes, or else are there 
formed,—which would argue for a stimulus of protein syn- 
thesis. Zaleski’s data are in some cases open to criticism, 
in so far as some of the values from which he drew conclu- 
sions differ by amounts within the range of experimental 
error. His conclusions regarding protein translocation have 
also been disputed by Hempel (’11) as based on insufficient 
evidence. 
In the study of tyrosin formation in roots of Lupinus albus 
seedlings, Bertel (702) found that crystal formation could be 
induced by stimulation with chloroform, ether, and other 
volatile organic compounds. A narcosis of 24 hours resulted 
in a loss of tyrosin, which disappeared entirely at the end of 
3-4 days. Since these results were obtained under aseptic 
conditions, Bertel ascribed them to an enzyme autolysis in- 
cited by the anaesthetic. In support of this view he stated 
that coincident with the loss of tyrosin was the presence in 
