on Osmosis, Solubility, and Narcosis. 715 
Dr. Fiihner determined the check to development which the 
fertilized eggs underwent in equivalent solutions of the 
different alcohols. 
Tt is quate evident that the narcotic action of homologous 
substances (such as alcohols, esters, &e.) with inereasing mole- 
cular weight 1s as 1:3:37:3°.... The validity of this law 
may justly be looked upon as an excellent corroboration of 
my theories *. 
I do not oppose Overton’s and L. Meyer’s theory, in so far 
as it represents the action of narcotics as depending on lipoid- 
solubility. From the relation which I have shown to exist 
between surface-tension and distribution-coefficient, in con- 
nexion with the fact that the narcotics exercise their chiet 
action in cells containing much lipoid substance, it follows 
that after penetration into the cell, dissolution in the lipoid 
substance takes place. But unfortunately not only does the 
narcotic dissolve into the lipoid substance, but some of the 
lipoid substance dissolves in the narcotic; and this cireum- 
stance may very likely be the cause of the disagreeable 
secondary effects exerted more or less by all narcotics. And 
if this be so, there seems little hope of ever finding a perfectly 
innocuous narcotic. 
I venture to hope that the above observations, setting forth 
as they do the close relations between Osmosis, Diffusion, 
Solubility, and Capillarity, may lay claim to some interest from 
the chemico-physical point of view. 1 would emphasize, how- 
ever, that the chief importance of the research lies on physio- 
logical, biological, pharmacological, and diagnostic grounds. 
The chief result is the substitution of the difference of the 
surface-tensions (den Oberflachendruck) for the osmotic 
pressure, and in my paper, which will be published in this 
year in Pfliiger’s Archiv ( Der Oberflichendruck und seine 
Bedeutung fiir den Organismus”) I prove that by the 
introduction of this new force in physiology a great many 
phenomena will be easily understood which were ‘believed to 
i. explained only by vital forces. I beg to call attention 
to that paper because several questions are treated (e.g. the 
theory of catalysis, the effect of the cell-walls and of medi- 
caments on the velocity of osmosis, the doctrine of toxines, 
&e.) which are perhaps of some general interest. 
Charlottenburg Technische Hochschule. 
* It seems to follow from Overton's and Fiihner’s experiments, viz. : 
that the narcotic law, in contrast with the capillary law, is not valid for 
the transition from normal to iso-combinations. From this we should 
have to conclude that the slight change in constitution brings about 
differentiation of the narcotic action. 
