September 15, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



395 



a biconcave shape would invite this alteration. 

 It seems plausible that the delicately con- 

 structed and highly flexible erythrocyte is 

 more easily subject to distortion, through the 

 action of reagents, than are ordinary tissues 

 for it is not supported by contiguous cells or 

 by intercellular cement. 



The following experiment of Lohner ('11), 1S 

 which I have corroborated, is interesting from 

 this viewpoint. If a droplet of blood be drawn 

 by capillarity between cover slips, 17 fused at 

 one point, discs are observed. If now 1 per 

 cent, osmic acid be drawn in cautiously from 

 one side only, many cups, some wedge-shaped 

 discs, discs, and distorted forms are seen. 



A limited number of cup-shaped erythro- 

 cytes undoubtedly exist in normal blood. 

 Possibly they represent corpuscles, whose 

 structure is such that unequal tensions with 

 respect to the osmotic balance exist; perhaps 

 they are old (or young?) corpuscles. In 

 anemias the presence of many cups have been 

 reported, and in fevers it is said crenation may 

 occur. May it not be that the blood of certain 

 individuals contains " normally " excessive 

 numbers of cup-shaped corpuscles? Is it pos- 

 sible that this explains why some of our most 

 careful workers have been led to describe this 

 form as normal? 



The evidence gained from the examination 

 of drawn blood, diluted in human serum, and 

 from the study of circulating blood in non- 

 anesthetized living mammals justifies, I be- 

 lieve, the conclusion that the biconcave disc 

 represents the normal shape of the mammalian 

 erythrocyte — the concavo-convex cup being 

 merely an occasional modification. 



Leslie B. Akey 



Northwestern University Medical School 



the penetration of balanced solutions 

 and the theory of antagonism 



Antagonism has been explained by Loeb and 

 by the writer on the ground that antagonistic 

 substances prevent each other from entering 

 the cell. As the writer has repeatedly pointed 



is Lohner, L., Arch. f. gesam. Physiol., Bd. 140, 

 pp. 92-108, 1911. 



iJ Blood should occupy part of the capillary- 

 space only. 



out, 1 this explanation encounters a diffi- 

 culty in the fact that antagonistic substances 

 penetrate the cell in a balanced solution (al- 

 though the penetration is much slower than in 

 unbalanced solutions). The proof of this has 

 been obtained by the writer by means of the 

 method of plasmolysis 3 as well as by deter- 

 mining electrical resistances 3 and it has re- 

 cently been confirmed by Brooks 4 by means of 

 the method of tissue tension as well as of dif- 

 fusion through a disk of living tissue. 



It is obvious that antagonistic substances 

 must penetrate in a balanced solution since 

 otherwise the cell could not obtain the salts 

 necessary to its existence. 



As a way out of this difficulty the writer has 

 suggested 5 that the slow penetration of salts 

 may produce effects quite different from those 

 produced by rapid penetration, just as the 

 precipitation of colloids may be brought about 

 by the rapid addition of salts while it does not 

 take place when they are added slowly. 



This difficulty completely disappears if we 

 adopt the standpoint recently advocated by the 

 writer in developing a dynamical theory of 

 antagonism. 6 From this point of view we re- 

 gard the slow penetration of salts in balanced 

 solutions not as the cause but as the result of 

 antagonism, or rather we may regard both the 

 slow penetration and the increased length of 

 life (or growth, etc.), by which we measure 

 antagonism, as the results of certain life proc- 

 esses which are directly acted on by the an- 

 tagonistic substances. 



The essential feature of the explanation lies 

 in the behavior of these life processes rather 

 than in the manner or rate of penetration. 



It is assumed that these life processes con- 

 sist of consecutive reactions of the type 



A->M->B 



i Science, N. S., 34, 189, 1911; 35, 115, 1912; 

 36, 576, 1912. Plant World, 16, 135, 1913. 



2 Science, N. S., 34, 189, 1911. 



s Science, 35, 115, 1912; 36, 576, 1912. Am. 

 Jour, of Botany, 2, 93, 1915. 



* Unpublished results. 



5 Science, N. S., 34, 189, 1911; 35, 115, 1912; 

 36, 576, 1912. Plant World, 16, 135, 1913. 



6 Proc. Am. Phil. Soc, 55, 1916. 



