CHEMICAL STIMULATION BY ALCOHOLS IN THE BARNACLE, THE FROG AND PLANARIA

1. The stimulating efficiencies of some normal primary aliphatic alcohols have been determined for the barnacle, the frog, and Planaria, under conditions which do not involve narcosis or simultaneous stimulation by other agents. 2. Concentrations of the successive alcohols necessary to produce a given stimulatory effect vary according to the following geometrical series: 1: a (–1): a (–2): a (–3): a (–4): . . . ., where a represents some real number. 3. Within certain limits the relationship between the logarithm of the concentration necessary to produce a given effect and the reciprocal of the reaction time is linear in the frog and in Planaria. 4. The concentration effect may be expressed by an equation which contains one constant characteristic of the alcohol series, and another one characteristic of each member. The ratio of the latter constants for successive alcohols represents a in the above series. 5. The stimulation by alcohols in these animals is considered to be due to energy changes at the receptive surfaces, brought about by a definite orientation of the respective alcohol molecules. Increase in stimulating efficiency as the number of CH(2) groups increase must be due to the rôle of the non-polar portion of the alcohol molecule, since the polar group remains practically constant throughout the series. 6. In homologous series of organic compounds it is conceived that stimulating effects will be produced either by the polar group or the non-polar group, according to which one becomes dominant in effect, or to a combination of the two.