SCIENC 



Friday, June 27, 1913 



CONTENTS 



Tile Physico-chemical Conditions of Anesthetic 

 Action : Peofessor Ealph S. Lillie 959 



Psychologists as Administrators: Dr. Chris- 

 tian A. EucKMicH 972 



The Plant Industry Sail of the XTniversny 

 of Nebraska 974 



The Physical Laboratory of Washington and 

 Jefferson College 975 



Scientific Notes and News 975 



University and Educational News 978 



Disciission and Correspondence: — 



The Laws of Nomenclature in Paleontol- 

 ogy: A. C. Peale. Ice Caves: Professor 

 Arthur M. Miller. A Human Mons- 

 trosity: L. D. Peaslee. The Omaha 

 Tribe : Francis La Plesche 979 



Scientific Boolcs : — 



Darboiix's Eloges acadimiqiies et divers: 

 Professor E. C. Archibald. Bidgway on 

 Color Standards and Nomenclature: Dr. W. 

 J. Spillman. Burnet on Microbes and 

 Toxins: Professor C.-E. A. Winslow ... 983 



Special Articles: — 



A Third Group of Lwiked Genes in Dro- 

 scphila ampelophila : A. H. Sturtevant . . 990 



The North Carolina Academy of Science: 

 Dr. E. W. Gudger '. 992 



Societies and Academies: — • 



The Academy of Science of St. Louis: 

 Professor G. O. James 994 



MS3. intendea for publication and books, etc.. intended for 

 review should be sent to Professor J. McKeen Cattell, Garrison- 

 on-Hudson, N. Y. 



THE PHYSICO-CHEMICAL CONDITIONS OF 

 ANESTHETIC ACTION^ 



Under certain well-defined artificial con- 

 ditions, as well as under some that are nor- 

 mal, the living system — organism, tissue or 

 cell — becomes temporarily inactive and ir- 

 responsive to stimuli. When such an arti- 

 ficially induced state of inhibition is well 

 marked and lasting it is called anesthesia, 

 or in a somewhat more restricted sense, 

 narcosis. This condition may last for hours 

 or even days, but apparently not indefi- 

 nitely; and when it passes off the normal 

 vital activities and properties return un- 

 impaired. This apparently complete rever- 

 sibility is one of the most remarkable fea- 

 tures of anesthesia, and dLstinguishes it 

 from death — a perhaps related but char- 

 acteristically irreversible change. The 

 terms "anesthesia" and "narcosis" are 

 somewhat differently applied, although 

 they have the same essential significance; 

 the former relates to any temporarily in- 

 sensitive condition, however produced, 

 while "narcosis" usually means an an- 

 esthesia produced by chemical substances. 

 I shall use the term anesthesia through- 

 out the present address to designate any 

 temporary or reversible lowering or loss 

 of the normal vital responsiveness, or of 

 the normal automatic vital activity, under 

 the influence of certain artificial sub- 

 stances or conditions. Anesthesia, as thus 

 defined, may be exhibited by the most 

 various organisms and cells, if not by 

 all. It is fully as characteristic of plant 

 cells as of animal cells, although its mani- 

 festations may be less obvious and striking 



' Lecture given before the Chemical Society of 

 Washington, April 11, 1913. 



