374 



GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY 



through the seeds of the other. After some days under this 

 arrangement the seeds that were in pure air had grown out 

 into long seedlings (e), while those bathed by the ether- vapour 

 showed no growth at all, without, however, having lost the 

 capacity of germinating in pure air. 



The brothers Hertwig ('87) have investigated the depressing 

 action of solutions of chloral hydrate upon cell-division in eggs of 

 the sea-urchin. When they let a 0'2 0'5 per cent, solution of chloral 

 act for some time (5 minutes 3 hours) upon eggs that were about 

 to develop, cell-division did not go on. Both the nucleus and the 

 protoplasm remained in the stage of division in which they already 



FIG. 107. Mimosa pudica, in ether-narcosis. (After Claude Bernard.) 



were, while the formation of rays about the centrosomes was com- 

 pletely absent. Only after the eggs had been washed for a 

 considerable time with pure sea-water did the development and 

 division of the cell proceed again. 



Finally, the phenomena of transformation of energy are also 

 depressed by narcosis. Both the spontaneous production of energy 

 and the capacity of reacting to stimuli are diminished, and finally 

 wholly cease. Among the phenomena of motion Claude Bernard 

 has shown this for the turgescence-movements of Mimosa pudica.' 1 

 If a pot containing a Mimosa be placed under a bell-jar, under which 

 is a sponge soaked with ether (Fig. 167), the spontaneous move- 



1 Cj. p. 227. 



