Observations on the Reaction of Protoplasm to 
some Reagents. 
BY 
WILLIAM SEIFRIZ. 
With four Figures in the Text. 
I N the following pages are given part of the results obtained in a series of 
experiments on the reaction of protoplasm to some common reagents. 
The effect of ethyl alcohol and of the three glucosides, saponin, smilacin, and 
senegin, on the living protoplast are here recorded. 
Material and Reagents. 
The leaves of Elodea served as material. All observations were made 
only on the superficial cells of the upper side of the leaf. The cells on the 
upper surface were found to differ somewhat from the upper cells in their 
sensitivity to certain of the reagents. 
The reagents employed for treating the cells were ethyl alcohol, saponin, 
smilacin, and senegin. These reagents were all obtained from Merck 
(Darmstadt). The saponin (pur. albiss.) is extracted from the Levantine 
soaproot Gypsophila struthium. The smilacin comes from sarsaparilla 
roots, commercially known as radix sarsaparillae, and obtained from 
various species of Smilax . Senegin is extracted from the roots of Poly¬ 
gala senega . 
The water used in making the solutions was spring water, the same in 
which the Elodea plants were kept growing in the laboratory ; it is in 
Geneva, very pure. 
PART I. 
THE REACTION OF PROTOPLASM TO ETHYL ALCOHOL. 
Experimental Data. 
Lethal Effect of Alcohol. Overton, whose pioneer work on osmotic 
properties of the cell gave us the first information we have on the effect of 
many reagents on protoplasm, states that methyl and ethyl alcohol of 3 per 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXXVII. No. CXLVII. July, 1923.] 
