Magnesium and Potassium Anesthesia in Amoeba.

Abstract

It is well known that the magnesium ion may serve as an anesthetic for many organisms. Magnesium salts are generally considered the best of all anesthetics for most types of marine invertebrates, and are also used to anesthetize the tissues of higher animals. Potassium likewise serves as an anesthetic, especially for certain types of muscular tissue. It is therefore evident that 2 of the commonest cations of the living substance may prevent its activity. Concerning the nature of the action of magnesium or of potassium, there is almost no information, and the usual theories of anesthesia offer little help.Both magnesium and potassium ions act as anesthetics for the common Amoeba proteus. Of the 2, potassium has the more pronounced anesthetic action. When amoebae are placed in dilute solutions of potassium salts, the pseudopodia are retracted, the amoebae round up, and movement ceases completely. In solutions of magnesium salts, the effect is not so pronounced. When amoebae are placed in dilute solutions of...