260 



Electrical Effects accompanying the Decomposition of Organic 

 Compounds. 



By M. C. Potter, Sc.D., M.A., Professor of Botany in the University 

 of Durham. 



(Communicated by Dr. A. D. Waller, F.E.S. Eeceived July 14, 1911.) 



The results of recent researches in electro-physiology have familiarised us 

 with the view that any physiological process accompanied by chemical 

 changes involves an associated electrical change. Haacke and Klein have 

 shown that electrical currents in plants are essentially a manifestation of 

 vital phenomena, and that differences in electric potential are connected 

 both with respiration and carbon assimilation. Waller's investigations have 

 also shown that the excitation of living vegetable protoplasm gives electrical 

 response no less than that of animal protoplasm. He has demonstrated that 

 leaves in a condition of active metabolism give an instant electrical response 

 to the influence of sunlight, which was modified under conditions affecting 

 protoplasmic activity. Apparently almost immediately upon the perception 

 of the stimulus of light, electrical energy begins to be absorbed in the 

 process of photosynthesis. Waller approaches very suggestively the existence 

 of two opposing forces in the presence of analytic and synthetic processes, 

 and recognises that the functions of assimilation and respiration might be 

 mutually antagonistic as regards visible electric effects. His conception 

 that "the product of dissociation .... gives current from the focus of 

 dissociation, whereas a product of association, during its formation, gives rise 

 to a current in the opposite direction," is of great interest. 



The line of enquiry now followed lies in the direction only of dissociation, 

 and is a study of electrical effects accompanying fermentation or putrefaction 

 under the influence of micro-organisms such as Saccharomyces or bacteria. 

 The special physiological character of fungi or bacteria demands the dis- 

 integration of organic compounds as a necessary source of energy, and where 

 there has been absorption of energy in a synthetic process one must look for 

 its liberation when the change is of an analytic nature. The evolution of 

 caloric energy during fermentation or putrefaction is commonly recognised, 

 and that electrical energy is also liberated during these processes is a 

 conception of considerable interest. In this preliminary communication 

 some experiments are described which were undertaken to determine whether 

 any E.M.P. is developed when organic compounds are broken down through 

 the fermentative activity of yeast and other organisms. Cultures of 



