34 
POISONS I THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. 
With a trifling exception, which future research may explain, the 
greater the solubility in oil of the above substances, the greater the 
narcotic effect ; thus trional, with a coefficient of 4-46, is active in a 
concentration of 1-8 mgrm. (molecules) per litre, while methyl urethane, 
with a coefficient of only 0-04, must be dissolved in the proportion of 
400 mgr ms. per litre. 
By the same process Meyer has shown that in the alkyl substitutions 
it is not, as formerly held, the ethyl group which is the specific carrier 
of narcotic properties, but that the activity is strictly parallel to the 
partition coefficient. 
Coefficient.. 
Dimethyl-sulphon dimethyl-methane (CH 3 ) 2 —C—(S0 2 CH 3 ) 2 
very weak .......... 
Diethyl-sulphon-methane CH 3 (S0 2 C 2 H 5 ) 2 very weak. 
Tertiary butylal (CH 3 ) 3 COH weak . . . . 
„ amylal (CH 3 ) 2 
>COH strong ..... 
c 2 h 5 
Sulphonal (CH 3 ) 2 —C—(S0 2 C 2 H 5 ) 2 strong. 
Tetronal (C 2 H 5 ) 2 —C—(S0 2 C 2 H 5 ) 2 much stronger than 
sulphonal .......... 
Trional CH 3 
bC(S0 2 C 2 H 6 ) 2 much stronger than sulphonal 
C 2 H 6 
0106 
0-1514 
0-176 
1-0 
1-115 
4-039 
4-458 
H. Meyer lays down the following deductions from the various 
experiments on narcotics :— 
I. All chemically indifferent matters which are soluble in fat and 
fatty bodies must act as narcotics on living protoplasm so far as they 
enter into the same. 
* 2. The action will be the stronger and the earlier on those cells in 
which the fatty components are essential to the function of the cell. 
3. The proportionate activity of such narcotic must be dependent, 
on the one hand, on the chemical activity of the fat-like substance ; on 
the other, on the remaining constituents of the body, especially water. 
The activity has, therefore, a direct relation to the partition coefficient 
which determines, the distribution of the substance between water and 
the fatty substance. 
The action of a pure narcotic is, therefore, not chemical ; it forms no 
definite chemical compound with the cell, nor does it alter its structure ; 
it simply interferes for the time being with its function. If the amount 
of narcotic in the serum diminishes, the partition coefficient alters its 
value ; and if ever new narcotic-free serum leaves the brain cells, the 
narcotic dialyses out and the cell resumes its function : e.g., ethyl-alcohol 
is soluble in oil and in water, and 2 per cent, narcotises tadpoles in water 
in a few minutes ; but if the tadpoles are now transferred to 1 per cent, 
alcohol, within five minutes their vivacity is restored, as the alcohol has 
dialysed out of the nerve cells. 
