A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF ANIONS ON THE 
PERMEABILITY OF PLANT CELLS. II 
Oran L. Raber 
(Received for publication January 20, 192 1) 
Studies on the effect of certain anions upon permeability were reported 
in a previous paper (i). The present paper extends the list of anions, 
including both organic and inorganic. The field is very limited because 
of the restrictions of solubility, osmotic pressure, acidity, etc., which were 
mentioned in a previous paper. The sodium salts which seemed to offer 
the fewest possible difficulties were chlorate, dichromate, molybdate, sul- 
phite, acid arsenate, ferrocyanide, formate, propionate, lactate, butyrate, 
and salicylate. The following table shows the acidity and concentrations 
of the solutions: 
Salt Approximate pH Approximate Mol. Cone. 
NaClOs 6 0.61 
NasSOs.yHsO II 0.35 
Na2Cr207.2H20 3 0.29 
Na2Mo04.2H20 6 0.39 
Na2HAs04.7H20 8 0.34 
Na4Fe(CN)6.i2H20 8 0.13 
NaCH02.H20 (formate) 10 0.56 
NaCsHsOa (lactate) 6 1.61 
NaC4H702 (butyrate) 10 1.70 
NaC3H502 (propionate) . , 9 1.74 
NaCrHsOa (salicylate) 6 1.29 
With one exception the pH values lie within the limits which- Oster- 
hout (2) has shown to have no effect upon permeability (in sea water). 
In every case, with the exception of the ferrocyanide and the molybdate, 
the conductivity was that of normal sea water. In both the latter cases 
the conductivity was approximately that of 75 percent sea water plus 25 
percent distilled water. 
Figure i shows the results, the curve for each salt representing an average 
of three experiments. The probable error of the mean (as based on Peter's 
formula) is always under 10 percent of the mean (and for 75 percent of the 
points under 5 percent). 
It will be noted that the univalent anions (formate and chlorate), the 
bivalent (molybdate and sulphite), and the trivalent (arsenate) fall into 
three separate groups, as in the case of the anions previously reported (i). 
It might be expected that the ferrocyanide would cause a very rapid 
decrease in resistance since it is a tetravalent ion, and its failure to do so 
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