134 PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY 



It appears, therefore, that cells in general require about the 

 same concentration of anesthetic to suspend their activities. Since 

 this process seems to be the reverse of stimulation and 1 stimula- 

 tion is associated with increase in permeability, we might expect 

 anesthetics to prevent increase in permeability. Traube (1908 a) 

 observed that isoamyl alcohol, which belongs to a class of sub- 

 stances which in high concentration cause hemolysis, at a certain 

 low concentration tends to prevent hemolysis of the erythrocytes 

 by other agents. 



Lillie (1909 b) observed that pure solutions of certain salts 

 cause an outward diffusion of the pigment from Arbacia eggs, 

 and interprets this as increase in permeability. He also found 

 that anesthetics inhibit this action of the salt (1914, b), so that 

 the salt solution + anesthetic may not cause loss of pigment. 

 This is in harmony with the recent observation of S. Loewe 

 (1913) that anesthetics decrease the electric conductivity of 

 lipoid membranes soaked in salt solution. These results are 

 probably due to increase in size of colloidal lipoid particles. 

 Clowes (1916) supposes the plasma membrane to be an emulsion 

 of lipoid in water that is changed by anesthetics to an emulsion 

 of water in lipoid. 



Osterhout (1913 a) observed that small quantities of anesthetics 

 added to the sea water decrease the electric conductivity of sea- 

 weed. He had already observed that Na increases the conduc- 

 tivity and Ca decreases it. Since Ca and anesthetic both inhibit 

 the conductivity increasing action of Na, it seems probable that 

 the anesthetic in the sea water inhibits the action of the Na 

 already in the sea water. It follows from this that anesthetics 

 inhibit the increase in permeability to ions. 



Hemolysis consists in the loss of the hemoglobin from the red 

 blood corpuscles. Not only does the permeability of hemoglobin 

 increase but Stewart (1899) has shown that the permeability 

 to ions increases. Arrhenius and Bubonovic observed that anes- 

 thetics inhibit hemolysis by hypotonic solutions. Joel (191 5) 

 showed that anesthetics inhibit the permeability increasing action 

 of pure cane sugar solution on erythrocytes. 



The eggs of certain fish are admirable for permeability studies, 

 since they develop in distilled water, in Which they neither swell 

 nor lose salts. It had been observed that the permeability of 



