The Influence of Narcotics, Mechanical Agents, and Light Upon the Permeability of Protoplasm

Some f'acts observed by the author (9, I2) caused him to conclude that not only the surface of protoplasm but its whole mass is responsible for the peculiarities of osmotic processes in the cell, although different parts of protoplasm may have different osmotic properties. We may expect, therefore, that every chemical change brought about in protoplasm, every dissolving of foreign substances in it or a removal of substances from it, may influence its osmotic properties. Thus, it is not surprising that light, which produces a photochemical change in protoplasm (I3), brings about an increase of its permeability. It is also comprehensible that narcotics change its permeability. They can produce this change, for instance, if they dissolve in protoplasm or if' they remove lipoids from it. In both cases the sol4ency of protoplasm is changed. In the first case a decrease of the permeability to substances insoluble in narcotics may be expected; in the second case an increase of the permeability to substances insoluble in lipoids may be observed. The author's experiments showed, indeed, that low concentrations of narcotics decrease the permeability, while high concentrations increase it (5, 6). This result was confirmed later by several investigators. The literature may be found in Winterstein's monograph of narcosis (i 8). An increase of permeability produced by ether was also recently observed by Weber and H6fler (I 7). In the present paper experiments are described in which some details of the action of narcotics on the permeability of protoplasm are elucidated. In connection with their increasing effect on this permeability, which doubtless should be ascribed to their destructive effect on protoplasm (compare, for instance, evidences mentioned in Winterstein's monograph), there is a destructive effect of mechanical agents on protoplasm. Special experiments were therefore necessary to investigate these effects. It was also important to determine whether narcotics influence the permeability changes produced by light. As is known, narcotics check some processes of metabolism (for instance, photosynthesis and respiration); one might expect, therefore, that they may also cbeck the changes of permeability. Indeed, Trondle (I4) described some experiments to prove that the increase of permeability in light does not occur in the presence of narcotics. According to my opinion, however, these experiments really show only that the permeability of 568