464 STUDIES IN GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY 
These are about the same values that we obtained for 
NaOH, LiOH, and KOH when V=110 and V=60. 
The dissociation of 4Ba(OH), and 4Sr(OH), in the 
concentrations employed here is also so complete that there 
can be no doubt that we are dealing solely with the effects 
of ions and exclusively with the effects of the hydroxy] ions. 
When the effects of acids and alkalies are compared, it is 
seen that hydroxyl ions have a greater influence on the ab- 
sorption of water than an equal number of H ions in the 
same volume of the solvent. 
Iv. ON THE EFFECTS OF H AND OH IONS ON THE ABSORP- 
TION OF WATER BY MUSCLE IN LONG-CONTINUED EX- 
PERIMENTS 
I had next to convince myself whether the experiments 
above detailed take place in living and irritable muscle or in 
dead and unirritable muscle. Stimulation experiments 
showed that the muscle which had remained for one hour 
in one of the alkali solutions even when V=60 was still 
irritable. Irritability was diminished, but it had not dis- 
appeared. So far as the acids were concerned, it seemed 
that the solution of an inorganic acid when V—110 is just 
as poisonous as that of a base when V=—60, so far as irrita- 
bility was concerned. We may therefore perhaps say that 
the H ton is much more poisonous for the muscle than 
the hydroxyl ion. Of the organic acids which I employed 
oxalic acid was the most poisonous, while the remaining acids 
were much less poisonous. Oxalic acid approached the 
inorganic acids in toxicity. In oxalic acid we deal with the 
effects of the hydrogenions. As I intend to return to this 
subject in another paper, these remarks may suffice at this 
time. 
It was further necessary to investigate how the absorption 
of water by muscle is influenced when the muscle is allowed 
to remain much longer in the acid and alkali solutions than 
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