A Criticism of Beutner's Theory of the Electromotive Force of Diphasic Liquid Systems and their Relation to Bio-electrical Phenomena

Abstract

THE to two-phase development systems of the has theory placed of the concentration study of bioelectrical cells and its phenomena extension to two-phas systems ha placed the study of bioelectrical phenome a 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 complete explanation of the facts. It must be remembered that the generalizations 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 insufficient 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 comprehension 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 properties 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-