December 2, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



Ill 



of temperature up to a certain limit in- 

 creases fermentation. Suppose the tem- 

 perature of a cold-blooded animal be raised 

 to 35 or 40°C. Fermentation will be 

 enormously increased ; in fact, it may be- 

 come so great that all the reducing sub- 

 stances formed are not able to find sufB- 

 cient oxygen for oxidation. Hence, the 

 same condition may obtain as in lack of oxy- 

 gen. To show this similarity of death by lack 

 of oxygen and heat, we made, at the sugges- 

 tion of Dr. Loeb, the following experiments 

 upon the protozoan, Paramecium Aurelia. 

 A great number of tliese little organisms 

 were placed in small glass dishes and either 

 subjected to a temperature of 35-40° or to 

 lack of oxygen. First, a lot of Paramecia 

 were placed in distilled water and the 

 length of time necessary to kill them bj' 

 lack of oxygen was noted. Next, two 

 more lots were placed in a weak solution 

 of alkali (NaOH) or acid (HCl). It was 

 found that, compared with pure water, 

 acids in concentration even as low as 

 1/876% decreased the time necessary to 

 kill Paramecia by lack of oxygen ; while 

 alkalies of even 1/800% increased the time 

 by 75-175%. 



"What has been said concerning lack of 

 oxygen and the effects of acid and alkali 

 may be repeated for high temperature. 

 Acid decreases the time needed to destroy 

 Paramecia by high temperature. Sodium 

 hydrate, on the other hand, increases the 

 time as much as from 20 to 80%. The 

 similarity in these two cases, i. e., lack of 

 oxygen and high temperature, is, therefore, 

 very striking. 



How can we explain these facts ? Why 

 is it that alkali increases the resistance 

 power of Paramecia against heat and lack 

 of oxygen ? 



We stated that in case of lack of oxygen 

 fermentation goes on, but that the oxidation 

 of the reducing substances is diminished 

 and finally stopped, and that these reduc- 



ing substances may act destructively upon 

 the organism. Now we may suppose that 

 alkalies act either upon the reducing sub- 

 stances themselves or upon the injurious 

 substances formed by them so as to render 

 them inert. 



The same course of reasoning applies in 

 regard to the behavior of alkali in case of 

 high temperature. 



To prove this we have still another test. 

 Claude Bernard and Geppert have found 

 that in an animal poisoned by potassium 

 cyanide the blood remains arterial and the 

 tissues have lost the power to take up 

 oxygen. In other words, such an animal 

 really dies because of lack of oxygen. If, 

 then, our theory is correct that alkali is 

 beneficial in lack of oxygen we might also 

 expect alkali to prolong the life of Paramecia 

 poisoned by potassium cyanide. In order 

 to prove this we made the following experi- 

 ments. 



One drop of 1 % KNC solution was placed 

 in a dish containing 10 drops of water and 

 one drop of culture containing Paramecia 

 was added. The length of time taken to 

 destroy all the animals was noted. The 

 same experiment was repeated, but instead 

 of water a weak solution of sodium hydrate 

 (1/200-1/2000% ) or of acid was used. In 

 all cases the acid shortened the time; salt 

 solutions (1/200-1/2000%) had no effect; 

 alkali increased the length of time from 50 

 to 300%. 



The same results were obtained in case of 

 poisoning by atropin. When it is remem- 

 bered that solutions of KNC and atropin 

 are alkaline in reaction, it is evident that 

 the beneficial effect of sodium hydrate is 

 not due to its antagonizing these poisons 

 directly. 



This is still better seen in the experi- 

 ments with Sulphate of Strychnia. As the 

 strychnia solution employed had a decidedly 

 acid reaction, a priori, we should expect that 

 here alkali would show its beneficial action 



