scholarly journals The Osmotic Relations of the Earthworm

1949 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-56
Author(s):  
J. A. RAMSAY

1. Osmotic pressure and chloride concentration have been determined for the coelomic fluid, blood and urine of earthworms kept in various saline media. 2. About 50% of the osmotic pressure of the coelomic fluid and of the blood can be accounted for as chloride. The blood is very slightly hypotonic to the coelomic fluid. 3. As the concentration of the medium is increased the osmotic pressure of the body fluids also increases and is always greater than that of the medium; the chloride increases proportionately, but is less than that of the medium when the latter exceeds 0.35% NaCl. 4. The urine is always strongly hypotonic to the body fluids except possibly in the most concentrated media (over 1.0% NaCl). 5. The osmotic relations of the earthworm are such as are characteristic of fresh-water animals generally.

Since Bottazzi's (1897) first determinations of the osmotic pressure of the body fluids of various marine animals many researches have been performed by other authors, particularly in reference to the permeability of the membranes separating the body from its surroundings. Bottazzi (1897, 1906, 1908, b) investigated individuals belonging to very different groups of animals, and found that the osmotic pressure of the body fluids of marine invertebrates, and of elasmobranchs, is very similar to that of the surroundings, while the osmotic pressure of the blood of teleosts is quite different. Changing the osmotic pressure of the medium, the osmotic pressure of most marine invertebrates, and of elasmobranchs, was shown to change in the same direction (L. Fredericq, 1882, 1904; Quinton, 1897; Dakin, 1908) and to reach, finally, the value of the former. The blood of teleosts is much more independent of the medium, for it shown to change only about 30 percent, in concentration, on transferring the animals from sea water to fresh water or vice versa (Dakin, 1908; Dekhuyzen, 1904: Sumner, 1905); other authors, however (fredericq, 1904: Garrey, 1905) could not field even these variations.


1910 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 510-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moyer S. Fleisher ◽  
Leo Loeb

I. In normal animals the injection of caffeine slightly diminishes the absorption of fluid from the peritoneal cavity, in spite of the fact that the amount of fluid and sodium chloride eliminated through the kidneys is markedly increased. The lessened absorption of fluid is due to a slight lowering of the osmotic pressure of the blood. II. In nephrectomized animals caffeine increases the absorption of fluid from the peritoneal cavity; the increase in absorption is greater in nephrectomized animals which received caffeine than in nephrectomized animals which did not receive this substance, and it is due to additive increase in the osmotic pressure of the blood. In a similar manner, caffeine increases the absorption of fluid from the peritoneal cavity in animals in which, instead of nephrectomy, other operations, not directly affecting the kidneys, had been performed. In this case also the increase in absorption is presumably preceded by and due to an increase in the osmotic pressure of the blood. III. In animals injected with uranium nitrate three days previously, caffeine diminishes the absorption of fluid from the peritoneal cavity, notwithstanding the high osmotic pressure of the blood which we observe in such animals. This agrees with the results of our previous experiments in which we found that in animals injected with uranium nitrate the absorption of fluid is not increased in spite of the rise of the osmotic pressure of the blood. IV. At the time of the conclusion of the absorption experiments, the amount of fluid retained in the vessels was found to be diminished in each series in which caffeine was used. Only in certain cases can this be due to the increased amount of fluid leaving the blood vessels through the kidneys; in other cases it can only be due to a movement of water from the blood vessels into the tissues caused by the injection of caffeine. V. In normal animals, in nephrectomized animals and in animals in which an operation not directly affecting the kidneys had been performed, caffeine causes an absolute and relative increase in the elimination of sodium chloride from the peritoneal fluid, as a result of which the remaining peritoneal fluid shows a lessened content of sodium chloride. Caffeine causes also a decrease in the sodium chloride content of the blood. We see, therefore, that under the influence of caffeine a greater amount of sodium chloride is eliminated from the body fluids into the tissues or through the kidneys. The factors which cause the sodium chloride to leave the body fluids are probably primarily responsible for the diuresis which takes place after administration of caffeine. In the case of caffeine and other similar substances the diuresis is, therefore, in all probability not due primarily to a specific action of the kidney, but to conditions which affect the distribution of sodium chloride in the body. VI. The distribution coefficient of other osmotically active substances differs from that of sodium chloride. These other substances have a tendency to move into the body fluids in increased quantities under the influence of caffeine. VII. Summarizing all experiments in which we studied the absorption from the peritoneal cavity, we may state that changes in the osmotic pressure of the blood represent the principal factor in explaining the variations in the rate of absorption of fluid from the peritoneal cavity. VIII. There exists no direct relation between an increase in the rate of absorption of fluid from the peritoneal cavity and an increase in the amount of urine secreted. If it should be found that even at a period following the injection of caffeine, later than that at which we have studied the absorption, a rise of the osmotic pressure of the blood does not appear, then we may state that the diminution in the amount of edema in the body cavities resulting from the administration of caffeine is entirely due to an inhibition of the production of edema and not to an increased absorption of fluid from the serous body cavities.


1936 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-328
Author(s):  
L. E. R. PICKEN

1. In Carcinus maenas: (a) The blood may be hypertonic, isotonic or hypotonic to the external medium. (b) The urine may be hypertonic, isotonic or hypotonic to the blood, and its concentration may differ in the two antennary glands. (c) The hydrostatic pressure of the body fluid is c. 13 cm. of water. (d) The colloid osmotic pressure of the blood is c. 11 cm. of water. (e) The urine probably contains protein and has a colloid osmotic pressure of c. 3 cm. of water. 2. In Potamobius fluviatilis: (a) The blood is hypertonic to the external medium. (b) The urine is hypotonic to the blood but hypertonic to the external medium and its concentration may differ in the two antennary glands. (c) The hydrostatic pressure of the body fluid is c. 20 cm. of water. (d) The colloid osmotic pressure of the blood is c. 15 cm. of water. (e) The urine may contain protein and has a colloid osmotic pressure (calculated) of c. 2 cm. of water. 3. In Peripatopsis spp.: (a) The blood is hypertonic to the urine. (b) The hydrostatic pressure of the body fluid is c. 10 cm. of water. (c) The colloid osmotic pressure (calculated) of the blood is c. 5 cm. of water. (d) The urine may contain protein and has a colloid osmotic pressure (calculated) of c. 2.5 cm. of water. 4. It is concluded that filtration is possible and that secretion and resorption almost certainly occur in the formation of the urine. 5. A microthermopile is described. 6. Methods are described for measuring the hydrostatic pressure and the colloid osmotic pressures of the body fluids in small animals.


1952 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
A. D. HOBSON ◽  
W. STEPHENSON ◽  
L. C. BEADLE

1. The total osmotic pressure, electrical conductivity and chloride concentration of the body fluid of Ascaris lumbricoides and of the intestinal contents of the pig have been measured. 2. The results obtained agree with the observations of previous workers that Ascaris normally lives in a hypertonic medium and that it swells or shrinks in saline media which are too dilute or too concentrated. 3. Experiments comparing the behaviour of normal and ligatured animals show that both the body wall and the wall of the alimentary canal are surfaces through which water can pass. 4. 30% sea water has been used as a balanced saline medium for keeping the worms alive in the laboratory. This concentration was selected as being the one in which there was least change in the body weight of the animals exposed to it. 5. The osmotic pressure of the body fluid of worms kept in 30% sea water is approximately the same as in animals taken directly from the pig's intestine. The body fluid of fresh worms is hypertonic to 30% sea water and hypotonic to the intestinal fluid. In 30% sea water the normal osmotic gradient across the body wall is therefore reversed. 6. In 30% sea water the total ionic concentration (as measured by the conductivity) decreases slightly, but the chloride concentration increases by about 50%, although still remaining much below that of the external medium. 7. Experiments in which the animals were allowed to come into equilibrium with various concentrations of sea water from 20 to 40% show that there are corresponding changes in the osmotic pressure of the body fluid which is, however, always slightly above that of the saline medium. The conductivity also changes in a similar manner but is always less than that of the medium, and the difference between the two becomes progressively greater the more concentrated the medium. 8. The chloride concentration of the body fluid varies with but is always below that of the external medium, whether this is intestinal fluid or one of the saline media. In the latter the difference between the internal and external chloride concentrations is least in 20% sea water and becomes progressively greater as the concentration of the medium is increased. 9. Experiments with ligatured worms and with eviscerated cylinders of the body wall show that these share the capacity of the normal worm to maintain the chloride concentration of the body fluid below that of the environment. This power is not possessed by cylinders composed of the cuticle alone. 10. If the worms which have had their internal chloride concentration raised by exposure to 30% sea water are transferred to a medium composed of equal volumes of 30% sea water and isotonic sodium nitrate solution, the chloride concentration of the body fluid is reduced to a value below that of the external medium. This phenomenon is also displayed by worms ligatured after removal from the 30% sea water and, to an even more marked degree, by eviscerated cylinders of the body wall. 11. It is concluded that Ascaris is able to maintain the chloride concentration of the body fluid below that of the external medium by an process of chloride excretion against a concentration gradient, and that this mechanism is resident in the body wall, the cuticle being freely permeable to chloride.


The behaviour of a number of corrosion-resistant alloys in chloride solutions, in Hanks’s physiological solution (simulating the extracellular body fluids) and as surgical implants has been investigated by electrochemical means, namely potential-time curves for isolated specimens, potential-current density curves for anodes, and current density-time curves for anodes maintained electronically at constant potential. Microscopical observation of pitting attack has also been made. Alloys based on iron (e. g. stainless steels), nickel (e. g. Inconel, Nimonic 75, etc.), cobalt (Vitallium), titanium and tantalum exposed to chloride solutions all show a range of potential in which they are passive, and, at sufficiently high chloride concentration and sufficiently positive potential, breakdown giving rise to pits that are electrobrightened. This general phenomenon occurs, in 0·17M sodium chloride solution, at 0·2 to 0·5 V (normal hydrogen scale) for stainless steels, ca . 0·9 V for the cobalt·based alloys, and ca . 20 to 30 V for certain titanium alloys and tantalum. In the passive range, all the alloys show anode current densities in the range 10 -6 to below 10 -9 A/cm 2 , the smaller current densities given by the most passive alloys (e. g. titanium-5 % niobium) often tending to decrease yet further with passage of time. We conclude that stainless steels (even of the higher chromium-nickel quality) and nickel alloys are unlikely to resist all breakdown by pitting when exposed to the body fluids (or other media containing chloride) indefinitely; that the cobalt-based alloys may well withstand such exposure for very long times; and that titanium and (especially) some of its alloys should withstand such exposure for an indefinite period. The (extremely slow) passage of cobalt and titanium into the environment is caused by passage of cations through their passivating oxide films, without breakdown.


2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Jackson ◽  
Daniel Brooks

AbstractWe recount here two experiments carried out which suggest the existence of the first described integumentary osmoreceptor of its kind in a vertebrate. Domed pressure receptors, present on the cranial scales of alligators have previously been demonstrated to convey the sensation of "touch" when flattened by pressure. Here we find that morphologically similar domed sensory organs present on the post-cranial scales of crocodylid but not alligatorid crocodilians flatten when exposed to increased osmotic pressure, such as that experienced when swimming in sea water hyper-osmotic to the body fluids. When contact between the integument and the surrounding sea water solution is blocked, crocodiles are found to lose their ability to discriminate salinities. We propose that the flattening of the sensory organ in hyper-osmotic sea water is sensed by the animal as "touch", but interpreted as chemical information about its surroundings.


1972 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-131
Author(s):  
R. KIRSCH

1. New intra-vascular cannulation techniques are described, and also an extra-corporal blood circuit containing an artificial heart and a counting cell. This makes possible a continuous study of the radioactivity of the blood. 2. Plasma chloride concentration varies greatly in fresh-water eels despite good sodium regulation. 3. The fresh-water to sea-water adaptation of eels is frequently accompanied by a temporary hypermineralization of the internal medium. This necessitates a high degree of cellular euryhalinity. 4. The sea-water-adapted eel maintains strict homeostasis of its plasma chloride and sodium. 5. The chloride distribution space decreases by 10% when eels are transferred from fresh water to sea water. The internal distribution of chloride is also modified and its fluxes between the ion compartments of the body are considerably increased.


Author(s):  
John Binyon ◽  
J. G. E. Lewis

The osmotic pressure and sodium concentration of the coelomic fluid of two species of httoral centipede have been measured and compared with those of a terrestrial one. A similar value of about 45 % sea water was obtained for all three species. Weight changes and longevity experiments in normal and diluted sea water suggest that littoral species are less permeable than terrestrial ones and it is suggested that the enlarged salivary glands of littoral species could be the site of salt secretion. A comparison is drawn with teleost and other examples whose body fluids are hypotonic to their environment.


1932 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-68
Author(s):  
K. HUKUDA

1. Several species of marine invertebrates, and an elasmobranch, have been kept in diluted media. The increase of body weight so caused was compared with the resulting dilution of the body fluids. 2. The bounding membrane of the invertebrates was permeable to salts when the animals were immersed in diluted sea water. 3. The bounding membrane of the elasmobranch was semipermeable, i.e. permeable to water but not to solute. There is a close quantitative agreement between the osmotic swelling observed and the diminution of the osmotic pressure of the blood.


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