i54 THOMPSON YATES AND JOHNSTON LABORATORIES REPORT 
When this view has been taken, the material which at once occurs to the mind 
is that which is most intimately connected with the activity of the cell, and is always 
present, namely, the cell-protoplasm, or, since we are considering the matter from the 
chemical point of view, the organized proteids which go to build up the cell. 
In addition to the proteids, there is another substance, or rather group of 
substances, widely distributed throughout the world of living cells, namely, the 
lecithins and allied bodies which have recently received the name of ' cell lipoids.' 
If by the term ' cell lipoids ' is to be understood anything soluble in ether, so 
including bodies so widely dissimilar in nature as neutral fats, cholestearin, and 
lecithin, it must be admitted that all cells contain ' cell lipoids,' although in many 
cases, even with this wide and somewhat meaningless definition, the amount present, 
compared to the proteid and other organic constituents, is infinitesimally small in 
many types of cell. But if the term is taken to mean lecithin and its compounds 
only then there exists no experimental proof that 'lipoids or lecithins' are present 
in appreciable quantity in every cell, and exception must be taken to the important 
position which has recently been assigned to these so-called lipoids in governing such 
a fundamentally important process as selective absorption, or as agents in producing 
anaesthesia by virtue of their high solvent power for anaesthetics. 1 
The earliest experiments which we have been able to trace regarding the action 
of chloroform and other anaesthetics upon tissues, other than those of the nervous 
system, have reference to an action of chloroform upon the skeletal musculature 
which was noticed soon after the introduction of anaesthetics, and attracted the atten- 
tion of a number of observers. The experiments were made upon the effects pro- 
duced by injection of chloroform into the arteries supplying the limbs, and the results 
obtained were a strong contraction of all the muscles, which, with larger quantities, 
remained permanent, the muscles becoming opaque and stiff, as in the case of heat 
rigor, or rigor mortis. 
Although the experiments were carried out with quantities of chloroform greater 
than are required for anaesthetic purposes, they demonstrate an action upon the 
muscle substance which is interesting from the point of view of the experiments 
which we have to describe later in this paper. 
The first observer who appears to have worked upon the subject was Coze, 1 who 
found that after injection of a few drops of pure chloroform into the crural artery of a 
rabbit, there followed immediately a muscular contraction so pronounced that the 
muscles appeared to have acquired the hardness of wood. The rigor only slowly 
disappeared if the animal survived the experiment, but in the end the voluntary 
movements of the limb became partially restored. Similar rigor was induced by 
injection of ether, but larger quantities were required to produce the effect. 
i. Overton, Vierteljakrssch. d. Naturf. Geielhch. in Zurich (1899), Bd. xliv, S. 88-135 \ Studien uber die Nariose, Jena, 
Gustav Fischer (1901). 
2. Complex retidus de CAcad., xxviii, 1849, P- 534- 
