A Criticism of Beutner’s Theory of the Electromotive 
Force of Diphasic Liquid Systems and their Relation 
to Bio-electrical Phenomena. 
BY 
DOROTHY HAYNES. 
(From the Department of Plant Physiology and Pathology , Imperial College of Science 
and Technology, London .) 
T HE development of the theory of concentration cells and its extension 
to two-phase systems has placed the study of bioelectrical phenomena 
upon an entirely new footing, and there are few physiologists who still doubt 
that it is within the scope of physical chemistry to furnish a complete 
explanation of such phenomena without the intervention of any specialized 
hypothesis. Nevertheless, much remains obscure, owing to the complexity 
of physical structure and chemical composition which is characteristic of the 
living organism, and none of the various theories put forward affords a com¬ 
plete explanation of the facts. It must be remembered that the generaliza¬ 
tions of physical chemistry have been developed almost entirely from the 
study of very simple chemical compounds, and that in applying them to 
mixtures of complex organic substances there is some danger that insuf¬ 
ficient attention may be paid to the essential differences between such 
mixtures and those of simple inorganic salts. It is by the careful study of 
these more complex systems that we may hope to attain to further compre¬ 
hension of the electrical behaviour of living tissue. 
Physiologists must therefore welcome so comprehensive a series of 
experiments as those described by Beutner in his recent work, 1 although 
they may be unable to follow him in all his theoretical conclusions. The 
experiments in question were carried out on two-phase systems consisting 
of water and ‘ oil ’, i.e. a liquid immiscible with water. It is in the proper¬ 
ties of such systems that Beutner seeks a clue to those of living tissues, and 
it is as a result of their investigation that he reaches the conclusion that it is 
the salt content rather than the acidity of the cell which determines its 
electrical behaviour. Such a view, if substantiated, is of fundamental impor- 
1 R. Beutner : Die Entstehung elektrischer Strome in lebenden Geweben. 1920. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXXVII. No. CXLV. January, 1923.] 
