COMPARATIVE STUDIES ON RESPIRATION : V. THE EFFECT OF ETHER ON THE PRODUCTION OF CARBON DIOXIDE BY ANIMALS

1. The experiments on frog tadpoles show that with 0.15, 0.37, and 0.55 per cent ether solutions there is a decrease in CO(2) output. The effect is reversible. With these concentrations the breathing movements and body movements remained normal during the experiment. In 3.65 and 7.3 per cent ether there is a decrease of respiration followed by an increase which in turn is followed by a decrease. The increase may reach about three times the normal rate. The increase in the CO(2) output is accompanied by the peeling of the skin. The effect is irreversible. 2. Experiments on an aquatic insect, Dineutes assimilis Aube, show that in 7.3 per cent ether there is a decrease followed by an increase which in turn is followed by a decrease. There is no apparent disintegration of structures in the organism accompanying the increase. The effect is irreversible. 3. The experiments on frog eggs with 7.3 per cent ether show a result similar to that found in aquatic insects. 4. Experiments on Fundulus embryos show that with 0.73 per cent ether there is a reversible decrease in the rate of CO(2) production. In 3.65 per cent ether there is a temporary decrease followed by an increase, after which the rate begins to fall off. In 7.3 per cent ether there is an immediate increase amounting to 307 per cent which is followed by a decrease. The increase in the 3.65 and 7.3 per cent ether is accompanied by irreversible changes leading to death. The decrease found in 0.73 per cent ether is not sufficient to cause narcosis, as is shown by experiments on which the same decrease is produced by lowering the temperature. 5. These experiments show that narcosis is not due to asphyxia. The action of anesthetics is due to some other cause than the effect on respiration. There is a difference between the animals studied and the plants described in this series of articles, since in animals the increase in the CO(2) output is accompanied by irreversible changes leading to death, while this is not necessarily the case in plants. The reversible (narcotic) action of ether on the animals studied was accompanied by a decrease in the carbon dioxide output; in plants this is not ordinarily the case. These facts are of considerable interest, but their interpretation must be left to future investigation.