Protoplasmic Structure in Spirogyra. III. Effects of Anesthetics on Protoplasmic Elasticity

Abstract

Filaments of Spirogyra which had been immersed for different periods of time in several concs. of various anesthetics were centrifuged with accelerations which usually caused no displacement of the chloroplasts in most cells of non-anesthetized filaments. The initial effect of certain concs. of the anesthetics was to decrease the value of Co in the equation, V = k(c[long dash]co), which approximately governs the rate with which the chloroplasts in cells of Spirogyra move in response to centrifugal acceleration. A decrease in Co was interpreted as a decrease in protoplasmic elasticity. With longer immersions Co returned to approximately the normal value except in the case of the alcohols, where Co became greater than normal (elasticity increased).