158 Prof. B. Moore. On Free Hydrochloric Acid [Feb. 28, 
cell method, but the results are so low as to cause one to doubt the accuracy 
of the method as a quantitative one, although it shows that the amount of 
effective alkalinity or acidity of the plasma is very low indeed. 
It is accordingly difficult, without some new method of attack, to investigate 
the effective acidity of the blood, and it is probable that in the end some 
physiological method alone, some application, for example, of the effect of 
minute quantities of acid or alkali upon the rate of growth or activities of 
living cells, will furnish a delicate enough test for such measurements of 
reaction as are here required. 
It is scarcely necessary to repeat after what has been said under the 
heading of the methyl-acetate method, that we cannot arrive at the degree of 
acidity or alkalinity of the blood by simple titration in presence of an 
indicator. But such determinations ought to be made for the purpose of 
giving some orientation as to the amounts and relative quantities of the acid 
and alkali producing salts, the carbonates and phosphates, present in the 
plasma. A series of such determinations is at present being carried out. 
We are hence at present without a method delicate enough to show us 
how the concentration of the hydrogen ions is varying in the blood plasma 
in health, or in conditions such as malignant disease, but if we suppose that 
the failure or reduction in quantity of the acid, is an indication through the 
mechanism of the oxyntic cell, that the concentration of the hydrogen ions in 
the blood of carcinomatous patients is decreased, and the concentration of the 
hydroxyl ions increased, then we have indications, from analogy with the 
changes which occur in other growing cells under like conditions, that such a 
change would probably give rise to increased cell growth and division. | 
Thus, Loeb* has shown that addition of 1 ce. of deci-norinal caustic soda 
solution to 100 cc. of sea water, that is an addition of only 0:04 gramme per 
litre, increased the development and growth of the eggs of the sea urchin at 
such a rate that one could scarcely believe that the two sets of eggs belonged 
to the same culture. It is only a trace of additional alkali which causes the 
nereased growth, more than a trace stops it entirely. 
Now, given a potential tendency to atypical cell growth and mitosis, to 
reversion to the sexual type of cell-reproduction, it is possible that an 
increased concentration of hydroxyl ions and diminished concentration of 
hydrogen ions, would form just the necessary chemical stimulus to start anew 
growth and determine its continuance and exuberance when started. 
It might be urged that the testing of such a view was exceedingly simple, 
* ‘Archiv f. Entwickelungsmechanik,’ vol. 7, 1898, p. 631. Quoted from Hober 
‘ Physikalische Chemie d. Zelle u. Gewebe,’ p. 235, 
