The physiological action of cyanide.—I. The effects of cyanide on the respiration and sugar content of the potato at 15° C

Abstract

The interest which attaches to tire physiological action of cyanide arises from the strong inhibitory effect upon the respiratory processes of the cell. This inhibition of cell respiration is interpreted as a specific poisoning of the catalysts responsible for tissue oxidations, since effects of a similar nature are well known in many oxidation systems of both biological and non-biological origin. Amongst the variety of animal and plant tissues studied, an inhibitory action of cyanide upon respiration has been observed in all but a few cases, and attention has been focussed almost entirely upon this effect. The extent of the inhibition appears to vary considerably according to both the kind and condition of the tissue, and at present the interpretation of these differences remains somewhat controversial. This aspect of the action of cyanide will not, however, be discussed in the present paper since we shall be concerned more particularly with an effect of cyanide which has not been recognised hitherto, although possible indications of its existence are to be found in the observations of other authors.