The Mechanism of Life Part 5

_Diffusion and Osmosis._--If we place a lump of sugar in the bottom of a gla.s.s of water, it will dissolve, and spread by slow degrees equally throughout the whole volume of the liquid. If we pour a concentrated solution of sulphate of copper into the bottom of a gla.s.s vessel, and carefully pour over it a layer of clear water, the liquids, at first sharply separated by their difference of density, will gradually mix, so as to form a solution having exactly the same composition in all parts of the jar. The process whereby the sugar and the copper sulphate spread uniformly through the whole ma.s.s of the liquid in opposition to gravity is called Diffusion. This diffusion of the solute is a phenomenon exactly a.n.a.logous to the expansion of a gas. It is the expression of osmotic pressure, or rather of the difference of the osmotic pressure of the solute in different parts of the vessel. The molecules of the solute move from a place where the osmotic pressure is greater towards a position where the osmotic pressure is less. The water molecules on the other hand pa.s.s from positions where the osmotic pressure of the solute is less towards positions where it is greater. As a consequence of this double circulation the osmotic pressure tends to become equalized in all parts of the vessel.

Diffusion appears to be the fundamental physical phenomenon of life. It is going on continually in the tissues of all living beings, and a study of the laws of diffusion and osmosis is therefore absolutely necessary for a just conception of vital phenomena.

_Coefficient of Diffusion._--The coefficient of diffusion has {44} been defined by Fick as the quant.i.ty of a solute which in one second traverses each square centimetre of the cross section of a column of liquid 1 centimetre long, between the opposite sides of which there is unit difference of concentration. Nernst in his definition subst.i.tutes "unit difference of osmotic pressure" for "unit difference of concentration."

Until recently it was generally believed that diffusion took place in colloids and plasmas just as in pure water. This is, however, by no means the case: the differences are considerable. When a solute is introduced into a colloidal solution, the greater the concentration of the colloid the slower will be the diffusion. This may be shown by a simple experiment.

Several gla.s.s plates are prepared, by spreading on each a solution of gelatine of different concentration, to which a few drops of phenol phthalein have been added. If now a drop of an alkaline solution be placed on each plate, we can see that the drop diffuses more slowly through the more concentrated gelatine solution, since the presence of the alkali is rendered visible by the coloration of the phenol phthalein. A similar demonstration may be made by allowing drops of acid to diffuse through solutions of gelatine made slightly alkaline and coloured with phenol phthalein. In general, we find on experiment that when similar drops of any coloured or colouring solution are left for an equal time on plates of gelatine of different degrees of concentration, the greater the concentration of the gelatine the smaller will be the circle of coloration obtained.

We may show that the rapidity of diffusion diminishes as the gelatinous concentration increases, by another experiment. If we put side by side on our gelatine plate a drop of sulphate of copper and another of ferrocyanide of pota.s.sium, the point of contact of the two fluids will be sharply marked by a line of precipitate. We find that under similar conditions the time between the sowing of the drops and the formation of this line of precipitate is longer when the gelatine is more concentrated.

_Osmosis._--In 1748, l'Abbe Nollet discovered that when a pig's bladder filled with alcohol was plunged into water, the {45} water pa.s.sed into the bladder more rapidly than the alcohol pa.s.sed out; the bladder became distended, the internal pressure increased, and the liquid spirted out when the bladder was p.r.i.c.ked by a pin. This pa.s.sage of certain substances in solution through an animal membrane is called Osmosis, and membranes which exhibit this property are called osmotic membranes.

_Precipitated Membranes._--In 1867, Traube of Breslau discovered that osmotic membranes could be made artificially. Certain chemical precipitates such as copper ferrocyanide can form membranes having properties a.n.a.logous to those of osmotic membranes. With these precipitated membranes Traube made a number of interesting experiments. These have lately been collected in the volume of his memoirs published by his son.

_Osmotic Membranes._--Osmotic membranes were formerly called semi-permeable membranes, being regarded as membranes which allow water to pa.s.s through them, but arrest the pa.s.sage of the solute. This definition is inexact, since no membrane permeable to water is absolutely impermeable to the solutes. All we can say is that certain membranes are more permeable to water than to the substances in solution, and are moreover very unequally permeable to the various substances in solution. As a rule a membrane is much more permeable to a solute whose molecule is of small dimensions.

Molecules of salt, for instance, pa.s.s through such a membrane much more quickly than do those of sugar. The term "osmotic membrane" should therefore in all cases replace that of "semi-permeable membrane."

Osmotic membranes behave exactly like colloids. The resistance which they oppose to the pa.s.sage of different substances varies with the nature of the liquid or solute concerned. There is no real difference between the pa.s.sage of a solution through an osmotic membrane and its diffusion through a colloid. The protoplasm of a living organism, being a colloid, acts exactly like an osmotic membrane so far as regards the distribution of solutions and substances in solution. {46}

The diffusion of molecules through a colloid, a plasma, or a membrane is governed by laws precisely a.n.a.logous to Ohm's law, which governs the transport of electricity. The intensity or rapidity of diffusion is proportional to the difference of osmotic pressure, and varies inversely with the resistance.

In the case of molecular diffusion, however, the rapidity of diffusion depends also on the size and nature of the molecules of the diffusing substance. The theory of the resistance of the various plasmas and membranes to diffusion has been but little understood; we can discover hardly any reference to it in the literature of the subject.

The laws of diffusion apply equally to the diffusion of ions. Nernst has shown that there is a difference of electric potential at the surface of contact of two electrolytic solutions of different degrees of concentration. Both the positive and negative ions of the more concentrated solution pa.s.s into the less concentrated solution, but the ions of one sign will pa.s.s more rapidly than those of the other sign, because being smaller, they meet with less resistance.

The resistance of the medium plays a most important part in all the phenomena of diffusion. When two solutions of different concentration come into contact, the interchange of molecules and ions which occurs is unequal owing to the differences in resistance. Hence both solutions become modified not only in concentration but also in composition. It has long been known that diffusion can cause the decomposition of certain easily decomposed substances, and it would appear probable that diffusion is also capable of producing new chemical combinations.

The separation of the liberated ions in consequence of the unequal resistance which they meet with in the medium they traverse often determines chemical reaction. This ionic separation is a fertile agent of chemical transformation in the living organism, and may be the determinant cause in those chemical reactions which const.i.tute the phenomena of nutrition.

When different liquids come into contact there are two distinct series of phenomena, those due to osmotic pressure and those due to differences of chemical composition. Even {47} with isotonic solutions there will be a transfer of the solutes if these are of different chemical const.i.tution.

Take, for instance, two isotonic solutions, one of salt and another of sugar. When these are brought into contact there is no transference of water from one solution to the other, but there is a transference of the solutes. In the salt solution the osmotic pressure of the sugar is zero.

Hence the difference of osmotic pressure of the sugar in the two solutions will cause the molecules of sugar to diffuse into the salt solution. For the same reason the salt will diffuse into the sugar solution.

A disregard of this fact, that a solute will always pa.s.s from a solution where its osmotic pressure is high, into one where its osmotic pressure is low, is a frequent source of error. Thus it is said to be contrary to the laws of osmosis that solutes should pa.s.s from the blood, with its low osmotic pressure, into the urine, where the general osmotic pressure is higher; the more so because in consequence of the exchange the osmotic pressure of the urine is still further increased. Such an exchange, it is argued, is contrary to the ordinary laws of physics, and can therefore only be accomplished by some occult vital action. This, however, is not the fact, as is proved by experiment.

Consider an inextensible osmotic cell containing a solution of sugar, the walls of the cell being impermeable to sugar but permeable to salt. Let us plunge such a cell into a solution of salt, which has a lower osmotic pressure than the sugar solution. Since the walls of the cell are inextensible, the quant.i.ty of water in the cell cannot increase. The salt, however, will pa.s.s into the cell, since the osmotic pressure of the salt is greater on the outside than on the inside, and the walls are permeable to the molecules of salt. This pa.s.sage will continue until the osmotic pressure of the salt is equal inside and outside the cell; at the same time the total osmotic pressure within the cell will have increased, in spite of its being originally greater than the osmotic pressure outside.

_Plasmolysis._--We all know that a cut flower soon dries {48} up and fades.

When, however, we place the shrivelled flower in water, the contracted protoplasm swells up again and refills the cells, which become turgid, and the flower revives. This phenomenon is due to the fact that vegetable protoplasm holds in solution substances like sugars and salts which have a high osmotic pressure. Consequently water has a tendency to penetrate the cellular walls of plants, to distend the cells and render them turgescent.

De Vries has used this phenomenon for the measurement of osmotic tension.

He employs for this purpose the turgid cells of the plant _Tradescantia discolor_. The cells are placed under the microscope and irrigated with a solution of nitrate of soda. On gradually increasing the concentration of the solution there comes a moment when the protoplasmic ma.s.s is seen to contract and to detach itself from the walls of the cell. This phenomenon, which is known as plasmolysis, occurs at the moment when the solution of nitrate of soda begins to abstract water from the protoplasmic juice, _i.e._ when the osmotic tension of the nitrate of soda becomes greater than that of the protoplasmic liquid. So long as the osmotic tension of the soda solution is less than that of the protoplasm, there will be a tendency for water to penetrate the cell wall and swell the protoplasm. When the osmotic tension of the solution which bathes the cell is identical with that of the cellular juice, there is no change in the volume of the protoplasm. In this way we are able to determine the osmotic pressure of any solution. We have only to dilute the solution till it has no effect on the protoplasm of the vegetable cells. Since the osmotic tension of this protoplasm is known, we can easily calculate the osmotic tension of the solution from the degree of dilution required.

_Red Blood Corpuscles as Indicators of Isotony._--In 1886, Hamburger showed that the weakest solutions of various substances which would allow the deposition of the red blood cells, without being dilute enough to dissolve the haemoglobin, were isotonic to one another, and also to the blood serum, and to the contents of the blood corpuscles. This is Hamburger's method of determining the osmotic {49} tension of a liquid. The diluted solution is gradually increased in strength until, when a drop of blood is added to it, the corpuscles are just precipitated, and no haemoglobin is dissolved.

_The Haematocrite._--In 1891, Hedin devised an instrument for determining the influence of different solutions on the red blood corpuscles. This instrument, the haematocrite, is a graduated pipette, designed to measure the volume of the globules separated by centrifugation from a given volume of blood under the influence of the liquid whose osmotic pressure is to be measured. The method depends on the principle that solutions isotonic to the blood corpuscles and to the blood serum will not alter the volume of the blood corpuscles, whereas hypertonic solutions decrease that volume.

_Action of Solutions of Different Degrees of Concentration on Living Cells_.--We have just seen that a living cell, whether vegetable or animal, is not altered in volume when immersed in an isotonic solution that does not act upon it chemically. When immersed in a hypertonic solution, it retracts; in a slightly hypotonic solution it absorbs water and becomes turgescent, while in a very hypotonic solution it swells up and bursts. In a hypertonic solution the red blood cells retract and fall to the bottom of the gla.s.s, the rapidity with which they are deposited depending on the amount of retraction. In a hypotonic solution they swell up and burst, the haemoglobin dissolving in the liquid and colouring it red. This is the phenomenon of haematolysis. According to Hamburger, the serum of blood may be considerably diluted with water before producing haematolysis.

Experimenting with the blood of the frog, he found that the globules remained intact in size and shape when irrigated with a salt solution containing .64 per cent. of salt, this solution being isotonic with the frog's blood serum. On the other hand, they did not begin to lose their haemoglobin till the proportion of salt was reduced to below .22 per cent.

Thus frog's serum may be diluted with 200 per cent. of water before producing haematolysis. In mammals the blood corpuscles remain invariable in a salt solution of about .9 per cent., and begin to lose their {50} haemoglobin approximately in a .6 per cent. solution. A solution of .9 per cent. of NaCl is therefore isotonic to the contents of the red blood corpuscles, to the serum of the blood, and to the cells of the tissues. It by no means follows that the cells of the blood and tissues undergo no change when irrigated with a .9 per cent. solution of chloride of sodium.

They do not lose or gain water, it is true, and they retain their volume and their specific gravity. But they do undergo a chemical alteration, by the exchange of their electrolytes with those of the solution. Hamburger has pointed out that in mammals the shape of the red corpuscles is altered in every liquid other than the blood serum; even in the lymph of the same animal there is a diminution of the long diameter, and an increase of the shorter diameter, while the concave discs become more spherical.

All the cells of a living organism are extremely sensitive to slight differences of osmotic pressure--the cells of epithelial tissue and of the nervous system as well as the blood cells. For instance, the introduction of too concentrated a saline solution into the nasal cavity will set up rhinitis and destroy the terminations of the olfactory nerves. Pure water, on the other hand, is itself a caustic. There is a spring at Gastein, in the Tyrol, which is called the poison spring, the "Gift-Brunnen." The water of this spring is almost absolutely pure, hence it has a tendency to distend and burst the epithelium cells of the digestive tract, and thus gives rise to the deleterious effects which have given it its name.

Ordinary drinking water is never pure, it contains in solution salts from the soil and gases from the atmosphere. These give it an osmotic pressure which prevents the deleterious effects of a strongly hypotonic liquid.

During a surgical operation it is of the first importance not to injure the living surfaces by flooding them with strongly hypertonic or hypotonic solutions. This precaution becomes still more important when foreign liquids are brought into contact with the delicate cells of the large surfaces of the serous membranes. Gardeners are well aware of the noxious influence of a low osmotic pressure. They water the soil around the roots of a plant, so that the water may take up {51} some of the salts from the soil before being absorbed by the plant. Pure water poured over the heart of a delicate plant may burst its cells owing to its low osmotic pressure.

In many medical and surgical applications, on the other hand, a low osmotic pressure is of advantage. Thus, in order to remove the dry crusts of eczema and impetigo, the most efficacious application is a compress of cotton wool soaked in warm distilled water. Under the influence of such a hypotonic solution the dry cells rapidly swell up, burst, and are dissolved.

Cooking is also very much a question of osmotic pressure. If salt is put into the water in which potatoes and other vegetables are boiled, osmosis is set up and a current of water pa.s.ses from the vegetable cells to the salt water. The cellular tissue of the vegetable becomes contracted and dried, and the membranes become adherent, the vegetable loses weight and becomes difficult of digestion, in consequence of its hard and waxy consistency, which prevents the action of the digestive juices. Vegetables should be cooked in soft water, and should be salted after cooking. When so treated, a potato absorbs water, the cells swell up, the skin bursts, the grains of starch also swell up and burst, and the pulp becomes more friable. The digestive juice is thus able to penetrate the different parts of the vegetable rapidly, and digestion is facilitated. Any one can easily prove for himself that a potato boiled in salt water diminishes in weight, whilst its weight increases when it is cooked in soft water.

The method of cryoscopy is also of considerable service in forensic medicine. As shown by Carrara, the cryoscopy of the blood is an important aid in determining the question whether a body found in the water was thrown in before or after death. In the former case the concentration of the blood will be much diminished. In certain experiments on dogs the cryoscopic examination of the blood showed a freezing point of -.6 C. The dog was then drowned, when the freezing point of the blood in the left ventricle was increased to -.29 C., and that in the right ventricle to -.42 C. On the other hand, when a dog was killed before being thrown into the water, the {52} osmotic pressure of the blood was hardly decreased even after an immersion of 72 hours. In the case of persons or animals drowned in sea water, a similar alteration of the point of congelation is observed, but in the reverse direction. In this case the osmotic pressure is raised considerably in those who are drowned, whereas no such rise is observed in those who are thrown into the sea after death.

The circulation of the sap in plants and trees is also in great part due to osmotic pressure. The aspiration of the water from the soil is due to the intracellular osmotic pressure in the roots, which causes the sap to rise in the stem of a plant as it would in the tube of a manometer. From a knowledge of the osmotic pressure of the intracellular liquid of the roots, we may calculate the height to which the sap can be raised in the trunk of a tree, _i.e._ the maximum height to which the tree can possibly grow.

Suppose, for instance, the plasma of the rootlets has an osmotic pressure of six atmospheres, corresponding to that of a 9 per cent. solution of sugar. A pressure of six atmospheres is equal to the weight of a column of water 6 .76 13.596 = 61.95 metres high. This, then, is the maximum height to which this osmotic pressure is able to lift the sap. That is to say, a tree whose rootlets contain a solution of sugar of 9 per cent.

concentration, or its equivalent, can grow to a height of 62 metres.

Cryoscopy is also of great use in practical medicine, more especially for the examination of the urine. The freezing point of urine varies from -1.26 C. to -2.35. Koryani has studied the ratio of the point of congelation of urine to that of a solution containing an equal quant.i.ty of chloride of sodium. He finds that the ratio (freezing point of urine) / (freezing point of NaCl) increases when the circulation through the tubules of the kidney is diminished.

Hans Koeppe has shown that the hydrochloric acid of the gastric juice is produced by the osmotic exchanges between the blood and the gastric contents. The ion Na^+ of the salt in the stomach contents exchanges with an ion H^+ of the mon.o.basic salts of the blood, NaHCO_3 + NaCl = HCl + Na_2CO_3. {53}

_Influence of Muscular Contraction on the Intramuscular Osmotic Pressure._--When a muscle is immersed in an isotonic salt solution it does not change in weight. In a hypertonic solution it loses weight in consequence of a loss of water, which pa.s.ses from the muscle into the solution to equalize the osmotic pressure. It gains weight in a hypotonic solution, the water current setting towards the point of higher concentration. It is easy, therefore, to tell whether the osmotic pressure in a muscle is above or below that of a given solution, by observing whether the muscle gains or loses weight when immersed in it. Thus we may measure the osmotic pressure in a muscle by finding a salt solution in which the muscle neither gains nor loses weight. In this way we have been able to prove that the osmotic pressure of a tired muscle is higher than that of the normal muscle. Our experiments were carried out on the muscles of frogs. After having pithed the frog, one of the hind legs is removed by a single stroke of the scissors. The leg is skinned, dried with blotting paper, and weighed. It is then placed in a salt solution whose freezing point is -.53 C. At 15 C. such a solution has an osmotic pressure of 6.6 atmospheres. We next proceed to determine the osmotic pressure of the corresponding leg after it has been tired by muscular work. For this it is stimulated by an intermittent faradic current pa.s.sing once a second for five minutes. The leg is then skinned, dried, weighed, and placed in the same salt solution. After eight hours' immersion the legs are weighed again. The following are the results of six experiments, the numbers representing fractions of the original weight:--

Change of weight of untired leg--

After 8 hours -.000.

After 16 hours -.000.

After 24 hours -.006.

Change of weight of stimulated leg--

After 8 hours +.050.

After 16 hours +.080.

After 24 hours +.101.

{54}

This result shows that muscular work provoked by electric stimulation noticeably increases the osmotic pressure of the muscle.

In order to discover the exact osmotic pressure in the stimulated muscles we repeated the series of experiments, using more and more concentrated solutions. In a solution whose freezing point was -.57, we obtained the following values:--

Change of weight of untired leg--

After 8 hours -.000.

After 16 hours -.004.

After 24 hours -.006.

Change of weight of stimulated leg--

After 8 hours +.039.

After 16 hours +.072.

After 24 hours +.099.