Here is the point where the interesting observations of _Hans Meyers_[227] and _Overton_[228] on the relations of the depressing influence of narcotics to their solubility of fat and water may be connected with the facts of the suppression of oxydation. _Meyer_ and _Overton_ have quite independently of each other made the same observation, that the depressing effect of a narcotic is the greater, the larger the coefficient of distribution between substances of a fatty nature and water. Those narcotics produce the strongest effects which are readily soluble in substances of a fatty nature, but not easily so in water, that is, in which the coefficient distribution between fat and water is very great. This law, which has been demonstrated by _Meyer_ and _Overton_ for a large number of narcotic processes, is in itself not a theory of narcosis, as has been often erroneously assumed. It shows us, however, an important condition, which must be considered in every theory of narcosis. It demonstrates that it is the ease with which transmission in the lipoid occurs which allows a substance to develop narcotic effects. These facts would seem to indicate that the lipoids of the cell are connected in some way or other with the exchange of oxygen. If we assume that the oxygen carriers, the chemical constitution of which is so far not known, bear the character of lipoids and belong, say, to the generally extended group of phosphatides, there results at once an apparent connection of the law established by _Meyer_ and _Overton_ with the nature of narcosis. [227] _Hans Meyer_: “Welche Eigenschaft der Anaesthetica bedingt ihre narkotische Wirkung?” Arch. experimentelle Pathol. u. Pharmacol. Bd. 42, 1899. Further: _Fritz Baum_: “Ein physiologisch-chemischer Beitrag zur Theorie der Narkotica.” _Ibidem._ [228] _Overton_: The first communication of the results obtained by _Overton_ were made by _Rost_: “Zur Theorie der Narkose” in the Naturwiss. Rundschau Jarhrg. 1899. _Overton_ has treated the subject in detail in his work, “Studien über die Narkose zugleich ein Beitrag zur allgemeinen Pharmakologie.” Jena 1901.