1918] 
BONNS—ETHERIZATION AND ENZYME ACTIVITY 251 
to (715%), attempted to collect data upon the effect of 
etherization on the enzymic activities of his material, with 
respect to diastatie, proteolytie, lipolytie, and oxidative 
action. His results, however, were all of a general and 
qualitative nature, no chemically quantitative data being 
presented. In line with Carlson, Ross and McGuigan (715) 
showed that ether anaesthesia does not increase the diastatic 
power of the blood serum. Watanabe (717) found the diastase 
of rabbit's blood to remain practically constant except for 
a slight tendency to increase immediately after the anaes- 
thesia. Burge ('17) noted that the catalase content of the 
blood deereased during ether administration and inereased 
during recovery from the anaesthetic. Тһе decrease, he 
believed, may be the cause of decreased oxidation during 
anaesthesia. Catalase action was destroyed in vitro by ex- 
posure to ether vapor, as during im vivo conditions. In such 
case it was not restored to normal amount when the ether 
was removed by bubbling air or oxygen through the blood, as 
occurred in vivo. 
EFFECT ON CHEMICAL REACTIONS 
The effect of anaesthetics on chemical reactions can hardly 
be considered as a phase of the present subject distinct from 
permeability or metabolic response. It will, nevertheless, be 
so reviewed here because of the striking and apparently 
direct relation between the chemical products noted and the 
anaesthesial stimulus to enzyme action. 
Mirande (’09) was the first to report the very quick re- 
sponse of the leaves of Prunus Laurocerasus to the action of 
ether and other stimuli by liberation of hydrocyanic acid. 
This reaction was indicated by the sodium picrate paper test. 
Plants of several other genera responded in a similar manner. 
Guignard (’09) followed this work with an account which 
showed that the chemical reactions involved the hydrolysis 
of a cyanogenetic glucoside, which hydrolysis is effected by an 
alteration of cell permeability. | 
Vinson (709), in a preliminary note, indicated that the 
fruit of the date palm when subjected to the vapor of acetic 
