1918] 
BONNS—ETHERIZATION AND ENZYME ACTIVITY 253 
content of Sorghum vulgare. He was able to show an in- 
ereased yield of hydrocyanie acid, both glucosidie and non- 
glucosidic, from leaves exposed to chloroform and ether 
vapors. This would indicate a stimulation of both hydrolytic 
and synthetic enzymes and is regarded by Willaman as a dem- 
onstration of enzyme synthesis im vivo. In this connection he 
also reported that the enzyme powder extracted from chloro- 
formed leaves was 25 times as active towards an amygdalin 
substrate as the enzyme from controls. 
STIMULATION, INHIBITION, AND THE THEORY OF NARCOSIS! 
Any consideration of the theory of narcosis or any attempt 
to explain the nature of stimulation involves a discussion of 
the structure of the plasma membrane and the theories of its 
composition and permeability. 
Probably the first theory of anaesthesia was that essayed 
by Claude Bernard (’78), who distinguished between an- 
aesthetics and narcotics, a distinction which, in the light of 
present knowledge, is no longer accepted. As anaesthetics 
he classified substances such as chloroform and ether which 
acted on both plants and animals and whose action was tem- 
porary. Under narcotics he grouped those which did not 
affect all protoplasts but only nerve ganglia. The present 
understanding of stimulation and toxic action of substances 
in the light of their physico-chemical behavior no longer re- 
gards any distinction between narcotics and anaesthetics. 
Largely on the basis of his study of the effect of anaesthetics 
on nerve tissues, Bernard regarded anaesthesia as the result 
of a coagulation of the protoplasm, with the resumption of 
normal conditions by elimination of the poison from the tissue. 
Dubois (’83) advanced another theory,—that of dehydra- 
tion of the tissues by anaesthetics,—as the result of his ex- 
periments with plants, and Verworn (’00) considered the 
action to be due to an inhibition of processes dependent upon 
the presence of oxygen. This theory has not been universally 
accepted, and the work of some investigators tends to show 
1 For an excellent discussion of this subject and of the related literature see 
Lillie (716). 
