BioelectricaAlterspan Labs
WJV
1871–1964

Winthrop John Vanleuven Osterhout

Osterhout studied how living cells handle salts and used electrical resistance, mainly in the seaweed Laminaria, as a measure of vitality, injury and recovery5. Early work showed that cells admitted sodium chloride alone but not when calcium was present3. Loeb, Bayliss, Lillie and Crile all cited this work178.

Born
2 August 1871
Died
9 April 1964
Country
United States
Field
botanist
In the library
1 work, named in 8 passages elsewhere
Facts from
Wikidata · Wikipedia · Open Library
18501875190019251950197520002025Loeb, J., 19121Loeb, J., 19122Bayliss, W. M., 19153Bayliss, W. M., 19154Osterhout, W. J. V., 19225Osterhout, W. J. V., 19226Lillie, R. S., 19237Crile, G. W., 19268
01

Salts and permeability

Loeb reported that Osterhout showed Overton's plasmolysis experiments did not prove that neutral salts cannot enter cells1. Overton had missed a later stage in which plasmolysis reverses, at a rate that depends on the salt2. Bayliss described Osterhout's 1912 result: Laminaria cells were freely permeable to sodium chloride alone, but not when calcium was also present3. Bayliss drew a caution from it. A substance that enters a cell does not show that the cell is normally permeable to it. Bayliss also cited Osterhout's 1906 finding that Ruppia needs four salts4.

02

Resistance as a measure

In the 1922 work Osterhout argued that ideas such as life, injury, recovery and death need quantitative study5. The electrical resistance of a plant or animal was taken as an indicator of its normal vitality, and injurious agents always changed it5. Laminaria moved from sea water into pure sodium chloride was injured, and killed if exposure was long enough5. A formula treated resistance as proportional to a substance, M, formed and broken down in a chain of reactions6.

03

Use and qualification

Loeb accepted Osterhout's correction of Overton but held that it did not show salts enter cells under normal conditions, since the cells sat in strongly hypertonic solutions1. Lillie cited Osterhout's conductivity measurements on Laminaria as evidence that anaesthetics lower permeability to ions7. Crile, in 1926, listed Osterhout with Lillie and Loeb among those who used conductivity to follow permeability, and called the work too well known to describe8.

SourcesEach quotation was checked word for word against the passage it opens.
  1. While the observations of Osterhout show that Overton was not justified in using the experiments on plasmolj^sis to prove that the neutral salts cannot diffuse into the cellsLoeb, J., 1912 · The Mechanistic Conception of Life · open at passage 313
  2. Osterhout has recently shown that Overton's observations were incomplete in a very essential point and that in reality the plasmolysisLoeb, J., 1912 · The Mechanistic Conception of Life · open at passage 309
  3. The experiments of Osterhout (1912), in which the cells of Laminaria were found freely permeable to sodium chloride when this salt was present alone, but impermeable to it when calcium was also presentBayliss, W. M., 1915 · Principles of General Physiology · open at passage 562
  4. Ruppia maritima, which requires, according to the investigations of Osterhout (1906), no less than four saltsBayliss, W. M., 1915 · Principles of General Physiology · open at passage 935
  5. the electrical resistance of a plant or animal is an excellent indicator of what may be called its normal condition of vitality. Injurious agents in- variably change its electrical resistance.Osterhout, W. J. V., 1922 · Injury, Recovery and Death in Relation to Conductivity and Permeability · open at passage 12
  6. this formula is based upon the assumption that the electrical resistance is propor- tional to a substance, M, which is formed and decomposed by the reactionsOsterhout, W. J. V., 1922 · Injury, Recovery and Death in Relation to Conductivity and Permeability · open at passage 252
  7. Decreased permeability to ions is indicated by decreased electrical conductivity; this has been demonstrated by Osterhout in Laminaria, by McClendon in sea-urchin eggs, and by Joel in blood corpuscles.Lillie, R. S., 1923 · Protoplasmic Action and Nervous Action · open at passage 356
  8. In particular the work of Osterhout, Lillie and Loeb along these lines is too well known to be more than mentioned here.Crile, G. W., 1926 · A Bipolar Theory of Living Processes · open at passage 547
In the library1 work
Injury, Recovery and Death in Relation to Conductivity and PermeabilityOsterhout, W. J. V.
1922
Injury, Recovery and Death in Relation to Conductivity and Permeability
Osterhout, W. J. V.
1922 · read
Quoted inArticles that quote this person's work