INTERRELATIONSHIP OF HYDROGEN ION CONCENTRATION, ELECTROLYTE CONTENTS AND COLLOIDS IN PERMEABILITY OF MEMBRANES: Calcium Sulfathiazole in Nasal Therapy

IN RECENT years considerable attention has been paid to the question of the hydrogen ion concentrations of nasal secretions as well as to those of solutions used in nasal medication, particularly by Fabricant,¹Van Alyea, Proetz²and others. Interesting studies have been made also on the influence which various drugs have on the ciliary activity of the mucosa of the upper respiratory tract by Lierle and Moore,³Proetz²and Yates.⁴ However, important as these elements are, they should not be evaluated independently but seen rather in their combined relationship to the permeability of membranes. Thus perfusing fluids of the same hydrogen ion concentration would have quite different effects on the permeability of membranes, depending on the presence of calcium, sodium or potassium ions. To stress the hydrogen ion concentration of a solution without recognition of electrolytic activity would lead to gross misjudgments. One cannot therefore list therapeutic agents purely by