Effect of ethanol on respiratory activity of embryonal tissues.

By estimating the respiratory activity of various chicken embryonal organs we have noted that it was the highest for the kidney tissues and lower and lower for liver, brain and heart tissues. After the addition of ethanol to the culture medium we may conclude that ethanol 2,5% does not substantially alter the cellular respiratory activity, whereas ethanol 5% remarkably appears to inhibit it. In fact for this last condition the heart and kidney fragments, when are transplanted after 48 hours in "pendent drop", result rarely surviving.