Chapter XIII: Part 13

A matter of very much more importance than that just discussed is the extra unnecessary expense put upon education, viz., two thirds of a year for every child in the land. Presumably if the metric system were in use with us, all our children would stay in school as long as they now do, thus getting two thirds of a year farther along in the course of study. Actually, if arithmetic were made more simple, vast numbers would; stay longer, since they would not be driven out of school by the terrible inroads on their interest in school work by dull and to them impossible arithmetic. If metric arithmetic texts were substituted for our present texts, it is safe to say children would average one full year more of education. What the increased earning power would be from this it would be hard to estimate, but clearly it would be a huge sum.

Consider also how much more life would be worth living for children, teachers and parents if a very large portion of arithmetical puzzles inserted to qualify the children to understand our crazy weights and measures were cut out of our text-books. If we were to adopt the metric system, literally millions of parents would be spared worry, and shame, and fear lest Johnny fail and drop out of school, or Mary show unexpected weakness and have to take a grade over again; uncounted thousands of teachers would be saved much gnashing of teeth and uttering of mild feminine imprecations under their breath; and, best of all, the children themselves would be saved from pencil-biting, tears, worries, heartburns, arrested development, shame and loss of education!

A committee of the National Educational Association has recently reported that Germany and France are each two full years ahead of us in educational achievement, that is, children in those countries of a certain age have as good an education as our children which are two years the foreign childrens' seniors. Surely one of these years is fully accounted for by the inferiority of our American ARITHMETIC and SPELLING. This much, at least, of the difference is neither in the children themselves, nor in the lack of preparation of our teachers, nor in educational methods.

Professor J. W. A. Young, of the University of Chicago, in his work on "Mathematics in Prussia," says: "In the work in mathematics done in the nine years from the age of nine on, we Americans accomplish no more than the Prussians, while we give to the work seven fourths of the time the Germans give." Professor James Pierpont, of Yale, writing in the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society (April, 1900), shows a like comparison can be made with French instruction. Pierpont's table exhibits only one hour a week needed for arithmetic for pupils aged 11 and 12! As the advertisements sometimes say, there must be a reason.

But if the children are kept in school two thirds of a year longer somebody pays for this extra expense. Now children do not drop out of school until they are about 12 years of age and have both appetites and earning power. The number of these children that drop out each year is probably about 2 1/2 millions. Of this number let us say 1 1/2 millions would become wage earners, thus passing from the class that are supported to the class that support themselves and earn a small wage besides. We have then three items in this count: (1) The cost to the state in taxes for the education of 2 1/2 million for two thirds of a year, or $50,000,000; (2) The cost to the parents for support of 1 1/2 millions for two thirds of a year at $67 each, or $100,000,000; (3) The wages of 1 1/2 millions over and above the cost of their support, say $50 each, or $75,000,000.

The above figures are put low purposely so that they can not be criticized. It should be remembered that 46 per cent. of our population is agricultural, and that on the farm, youths of from 13 to 15 very often do men's and women's work: also that in many manufacturing centers great numbers of children get work at relatively good wages, and that the number of completely idle children out of school is not large.

With these figures in hand let us consider now a kind of debit and credit sheet against and for our present system of weights and measures.

PRESENT SYSTEM OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

In ANNUAL account with UNCLE SAM

Cr. By culture (?) acquired by the children through learning more common fractions and our crazy tables of weights and measures.......... $?

Dr. To cost in school taxes of keeping 2 1/2 millions of children in school 2/3 year. $50,000,000 To cost to parents for supporting 1 1/2 millions children 2/3 year............. 100,000,000 To loss of productive power of 1 1/2 millions youth for 2/3 year ............. 75,000,000 To loss of earning power by having children driven out of school by difficulties of arithmetic as now taught .................................... 25,000,000 To loss of time in making arithmetical calculations by men in trade, industries and manufactures.......................... 30,000,000 To extra weighing and measuring instruments needed for sundry tables....... 10,000,000 To loss of time in making cross reductions to and from our system and metric system .............................. 5,000,000 To loss of profit from foreign trade because our goods are not in metric units ..................................... 20,000,000 ------------ Total annual loss ................. $315,000,000

Commenting for a moment on the credit side of the above ledger account, it can be said that recent psychology shows conclusively that training in common fractions and weights and measures can not be of much practical help as so-called culture, or training for learning other things, unless those other things are closely related to them, and there are not many things in life so related to them once we had dropped our present weights and measures.

It may be complained that the expense of changing to the new system is not taken account of in the above table. The reason is that that expense would occur once for all. The above table deals with the ANNUAL cost of our present medieval system.

One powerful reason for the adoption of the metric system different in character from the others is the ease of cheating by the old system. In the past the people have been unmercifully abused through short weights and measures. Many of the states have taken this matter up latterly and prosecuted merchants right and left. Nine tenths of this trouble would disappear with the new system in use.

Let us consider now for a little time the reasons why the metric system has not been accepted and adopted for use in the United States. Evidently the great main reason has been that the masses of the people, in fact all of them except a very small educated class in science are almost totally uninformed on this whole question. Such articles as have been published have almost invariably appeared in either scientific, technical or educational magazines, mostly the first, so that there has been no means of reaching the masses, or even the school teachers with the facts. For another reason the United States occupies an isolated position geographically, and our people do not come into personal contact with those in other countries using the metric system. But there is still another potent reason. After the United States government legalized the metric system in 1866, all the school books on arithmetic began presenting the topic of the metric system, and, quite naturally, they did it by comparing its units with those of our system and calling for cross reductions from one system to the other. No better means of sickening the American children with the metric system could have been devised. Multitudes of the young formed a strong dislike for the foreign system with its foreign names, and could not now be easily convinced that it is not difficult to learn. Every school boy knows how easy it is to learn United States money. The boy just naturally learns it between two nights. The whole metric system UNDER FAVORABLE CONDITIONS is learned nearly as easily. By favorable conditions is meant the constant use of the system in homes, schools, stores, etc. These favorable conditions, of course, we have never had.

In 1904 an earnest effort was made again both in this country and Great Britain to have the metric system adopted for general use. The exporting manufacturers in both countries grew much concerned over the whole situation. A petition to have the metric system adopted in Great Britain was signed by over 2,000,000 persons. A bill to make the system mandatory was passed by the House of Lords and its first reading in the House of Commons. The forces of conservatism then bestirred themselves and the bill was held up. Forseeing a movement of the same kind in this country, the American Manufactures' Association got busy, laid plans to defeat such movement which they later did. Strictly speaking this action was not taken by the association as such but only by a part of it. One fourth of the membership and probably much more than a fourth of the capital of the association was on the side for the adoption of the system. Politically, however, the side opposed to the new system had altogether the most influence.

Careful study of the whole matter showed that the main cost to make the change to the new system would be in dies, patterns, gauges, jigs, etc. A careful estimate put this cost at $600 for each workman and assuming a million workmen, we have a total cost of $600,000,000. But we have just seen that the annual expense of retaining the old system of weights and measures is over $300,000,000. Thus we see that two short years would suffice to pay for what seems to the great manufacturers association an insuperable expense. From all this we see that the question is not one for N. M. A. bookkeeping, but for national bookkeeping.

Many well-informed people studying the matter superficially, think the difficulties in the way of a change to the new system insurmountable. Thus, they think of the cost to the manufacturer--which we have just seen to be rather large but not insurmountable; they think of the changes needed in books, records, such as deeds, and the substitution of new measuring and weighing instruments. Germany and all the other countries of continental Europe made the change. Are we to assume that the United States can not? That would be ridiculous. Granting that commerce has grown greatly, so also has intelligence and capability of the people for doing great things.

Scientists are universally agreed as to the wisdom of the adoption of the metric system. The country, as a whole, must be educated up to the notion that sooner or later it is sure to be universally adopted, that it is only a question of time when this will be done. Already electrical, chemical and optical manufacturing concerns use the metric units and system exclusively. The system is also used widely in medicine and still other arts. Then all institutions of learning use the metric system exclusively whenever this is possible. All that is needed is to complete a good work well begun.

There is one rational objection to the metric system and but one. It is that 10 is inferior to 12 as a base for a notation for numbers, but the world is not ready to make this change nor is it likely to be for generations to come. Moreover, this improvement is far less important than uniformity in weights and measures. For these reasons this objection can be passed over. Men said the metric system would never be used outside of France; but it has come to be used all over the world. The prophets said we should never have uniformity as regards a reference meridian of longitude. But we have. And so it will be with the adoption of the metric system in the United States and Great Britain. It is only a question of whether it comes sooner or later. When that day comes, the meter, a long yard, will replace the yard, the liter, the quart (being smaller than a dry and larger than a liquid quart), the kilogram will replace the pound, being equal to 2.2 pounds, and the kilometer (.6 mi.) will replace the mile. Within a week or so after the change has been made to the new system, all men in business will be reasonably familiar with the new units and how they are used, and within a few months every man, woman and child will be as familiar with the new system as they ever were with the simplest parts of the old. So easy it will be to make the change as far as ordinary business affairs are concerned. However, for exact metal manufactures years will be needed to fully change over to the new. Here the plan is to begin with new unit constructions and new models, as automobiles using new machinery constructed in the integral units of the metric system. All old constructions are left as they are and repaired as they are. This was the plan used in Germany and of course it works.

In conclusion it can be said that we started with the idea that the change to the metric system was needed for the sake of foreign commerce. We now see that we need it also for our own commercial and manufacturing transactions. If we are to have the efficiency so insistently demanded by the age in which we live, then we must have the metric system in use for the ordinary affairs of daily life of the masses of the people, we must have it in commercial and manufacturing industries, and we must have it in education. If efficiency is to be the slogan, then the metric system must come no matter what obstacles stand in its way.

ADAPTATION AS A PROCESS

BY PROFESSOR HARRY BEAL TORREY

REED COLLEGE

FOR the physicist and chemist the term adaptation awakens but the barren echo of an idea. In biology it still retains a certain standing, though its significance has, in recent years, been rapidly contracting, as the influence of the conception for which it stands has waned. Many biologists are now of the opinion that their science would be better off entirely without it. They believe it has not only outlived its usefulness, but has become a source of confusion, if not, indeed, reaction.

Darwin's first task, in the "Origin of Species," was to demonstrate that species had not been independently created, but had descended, like varieties, from other species. But he was well aware that

such a conclusion, even if well founded, would be unsatisfactory until it could be shown how the innumerable species inhabiting the world have been modified, so as to acquire that perfection of structure and coadaptation which justly excites our admiration.

To establish convincingly the doctrine of descent with modification as a theory of species, it was necessary for him to develop the theory of adaptation which we now know as natural selection.

The origin of adaptive variations gave him, at that time, little concern. Though keenly appreciative of the problem of variation which his studies in evolution presented, he dismissed it in the "Origin" with less than twenty-five pages of discussion. Such brevity is not surprising, since a more extended treatment would only have embarrassed the progress of the argument. In fact, his restraint in this direction enabled him, first, to avoid the difficulties into which Lamarck, with his bold attack on the problem of variation, had fallen; and second, by doing so, to deal the doctrine of Design a blow from which it has never recovered.

The latter was a service of well-nigh incalculable value to the young science of biology--and, as it appeared, to modern civilization as well. But it has not been uncommon, from Aristotle's day to this, for the work of great men to suffer at the hands of less imaginative followers. Sweeping applications of Darwin's doctrine have been repeatedly made without due regard either for its original object or for the success with which that object was achieved. So I believe it to be no fault of Darwin that the growing indifference of European laboratories toward natural selection should find occasional expression in such a phrase as "the English disease." Disease, indeed, I believe we must in candor admit that devotion to it to be which blinds its devotees to those problems of more elementary importance than the problem of adaptation, which Darwin clearly saw but was born too soon to solve.

The problem of species has profoundly changed since 1859. For Darwin it was perforce a problem of adaptation. For the investigator of to-day it has become a part of the more inclusive problem of variation. Along with the logical results of natural selection he contemplates the biological processes of organic differentiation. He is no longer satisfied to assume the existence of those modifications that make selection possible. In his efforts to control them, the conception of adaptation as a result has been crowded from the center of his interest by the conception of adaptation as a process.

The survival of specially endowed organisms, the elimination of competing individuals not thus endowed, are facts that possess, in themselves, no immediate biological significance. Selection as such is not a biological process, whether it is accomplished automatically on the basis of protective coloration, or self-consciously by man. Separating sheep from goats may have a purely commercial interest, as when prunes and apples, gravel and bullets, are graded for the market. Such selection is, at bottom, a method of classification, serving the same general purpose as boxes in a post-office. Similarly, natural selection is but a name for the segregation and classification that take place automatically in the great struggle for existence in nature. The fact that it is a result rather than a process accounts, probably more than anything else, for its remarkable effect upon modern thought. It is non-energetic. It exerts no creative force. As a conception of passive mechanical segregation and survival, it was a most timely and potent substitute for the naive teleology involved in the idea of special creation.

As a theory of adaptation, then, natural selection is satisfactory only in so far as it accounts for the "preservation of favored races." It throws no light upon the origin of the variations with which races are favored. Since it is only as variations possess a certain utility for the organism that they become known as adaptations, the conception of adaptation is inevitably associated with the welfare of individuals or the survival of races. To disregard this association is to rob the conception of all meaning. Like health, it has no elementary physiological significance.

Our profound interest in the problem of survival is natural and practical and inevitable. But in spite of Darwin's great contribution toward a scientific analysis of the mechanism of organic evolution, and in spite of the marvelous recent progress of medicine along its many branches, the fact remains that so far as this interest in the problem of survival is dominant it must continue to hinder adequate analysis of the problem of adaptation. Indeed, it is in large measure due to such domination in the past that biology now lags so far behind the less personal sciences of physics and chemistry. For survival means the survival of an individual. And there is no doubt that the individual organism is the most conspicuous datum in the living world. The few who, neglectful of individuals and survivals, find their chief interest in living substance, its properties and processes, are promptly challenged by the many to find living substance save in the body of an organism. Thus, in a peculiarly significant sense, organisms are vital units. And since the individual organism shows a remarkable capacity to retain its identity under a wide range of conditions, adaptability or adjustability comes to be reckoned as the prime characteristic of life by all to whom the integrity of the individual organism is the fact of chief importance.

With the use of the words adaptability and adjustability, our discussion assumes a somewhat different aspect. Instead of contemplating further the mechanical selection of individuals on the basis of characters that, like the structure of "the woodpecker, with its feet, tail, beak and tongue, so admirably adapted to catch insects under the bark of trees," can not be attributed to the influence of the external conditions that render them useful, we are invited to consider immediate and plastic adjustments of the organism to the very conditions that call forth the response. For the fortuitous adjustments that tend to preserve those individuals or races that chance to possess them, are substituted, accordingly, the direct primary adjustments that tend to preserve the identity of the reacting organism. We turn thus from the RESULTS of the selection of favorable variations to the biological PROCESSES by which organisms become accommodated to their conditions of life.

At once the old questions arise. Are these processes fundamentally peculiar to the life of organisms? Does the capacity of the organism thus to adjust itself to its environment involve factors not found in the operations of inorganic nature? Our answers will be determined essentially by the nature of our interest in the organism--whether we regard its existence as the END or merely an incidental EFFECT of its activities. The first alternative is compatible with thoroughgoing vitalism. The second, emphasizing the nature of the processes rather than their usefulness to the organism, relieves biology of the embarrassments of vitalistic speculation, and allies it at the same time more intimately than ever with physics and chemistry. This alliance promises so well for the analysis of adaptations, as to demand our serious attention.

Physiologically, the living organism may be thought of as a physico-chemical system of great complexity and peculiar composition which varies from organism to organism and from part to part. Life itself may be defined as a group of characteristic activities dependent upon the transformations in this system under appropriate conditions. According to this definition, life is determined not only by the physical and chemical attributes of the system, but by the fitness of its environment, which Henderson has recently done the important service of emphasizing.[1] Relatively trifling changes in the environment suffice to render it unfit, however, that is, to modify it beyond the limits of an organism's adaptability. The environmental limits are narrow, then, within which the transformations of the organic system can take place that are associated with adaptive reactions. The conditions within these limits are, further, peculiarly favorable for just such transformations in just such physico-chemical systems.

[1] "The Fitness of the Environment."

The essential characteristic of the adaptive reaction appears to be that the organism concerned responds to changing conditions without losing certain attributes of behavior by which we recognize organisms in general and by which that organism is recognized in particular. It exhibits stability in the midst of change; it retains its identity. But this stability, let us repeat, is the stability of a certain type of physico-chemical system, with respect to certain characters only, and exhibited under certain circumscribed conditions. In so far as the problem of adaptation is thus restricted in its application, it remains a question of standards, a taxonomic convenience, a problem of the organism by definition only, empty of fundamental significance.

It is to be expected that systems differing widely in composition and structure will differ in their responses to given conditions. This will be true whether the systems compared thus are organic, or inorganic, or representative of both groups. The compounds of carbon, of which living substance is so characteristically composed, exhibit properties and reactions that distinguish them at once in many respects from the compounds of lead or sulphur. They also differ widely among themselves; compare, in this connection, serum albumen, acetic acid, cane sugar, urea. No vitalistic factor is needed for the interpretation of divergencies of this kind. But there are many significant similarities between organisms and inorganic systems as well. These are so frequently overlooked that it will now be desirable to consider a few illustrative cases. For the sake of brevity, they have been selected as representative of but two types of adaptation commonly known under the names of ACCLIMATIZATION and REGULATION.

Let us first consider the case of organisms which become acclimatized by slow degrees to new conditions that, suddenly imposed, would produce fatal results. Hydra is an organism which becomes thus acclimatized finally to solutions of strychnine too strong to be endured at first. Outwardly it appears to suffer in the process no obvious modifications. Yet modifications of a physiological order take place, as is shown, first, by the necessary deliberation of the acclimatization, second, by the death of the organism if transferred abruptly back to its original environment.

In other forms the structural changes accompanying acclimatization may be far more conspicuous. For example, the aerial leaves of Limnophila heterophylla are dentate, while those grown under water are excessively divided. Again, the helmets and caudal spines of Hyalodaphnia vary greatly in length with the seasonal temperature.

In these and the large number of similar cases that might be cited, stability of the physiological system under changed conditions is only obtained by changes in the system itself which are often exhibited by striking structural modifications.

Compare with such phenomena of acclimatization the responses of sulphur, tin, liquid crystals and iron alloys to changes of temperature. The rhombic crystals that characterize sulphur at ordinary temperatures and pressures, give place to monoclinic crystals at 95.5 degrees C. Sulphur thus exists with two crystalline forms whose stability depends directly upon the temperature.

Similarly, tin exists under two stable forms, white and gray, the one above, the other below the transitional point, which is, in this case, 18 degrees C. At this temperature white tin is in a metastable condition, and transforms into the gray variety. The transformation goes on, then, at ordinary temperatures, but, fortunately for us as users of tin implements, very slowly. Its velocity can be increased, however, by lowering the temperature, on which, then, not only the transformation itself, but its rate depends.

In this connection may be mentioned cholesteryl acetate and benzoate and other substances which possess two crystalline phases, one of which is liquid, unlike other liquids, however, in being anisotropic. As in the preceding cases, these phases are expressions of equilibrium at different temperatures.

Especially instructive facts are afforded by the alloys of iron and carbon. Iron, or ferrite, exists under three forms: as alpha ferrite below 760 degrees, as beta ferrite between 760 degrees and 900 degrees, and as gamma ferrite above 900 degrees. Only the last is able to hold carbon in solid solution. The alloys of iron and carbon exist under several forms. Pearlite is a heterogeneous mixture containing 0.8 per cent. carbon. When heated to 670 degrees, it becomes homogeneous, an amount of carbon up to two per cent. dissolves in the iron, and hard steel or martensite is formed. In appearance, however, the two forms are so nearly identical as to be discriminated only by careful microscopical examination. Cementite is a definite compound of iron and carbon represented by the formula Fe<3 subscript>C.

When cooled slowly below 670 degrees, martensite yields a heterogeneous mixture of pearlite and ferrite (or cementite, if the original mixture contained between 0.8 per cent. and two per cent. of carbon). Soft steels and wrought iron are thus obtained. When cooled rapidly, however, as in the tempering of steel, martensite remains a homogeneous solid solution, or hard steel.

One can not fail to notice the remarkable parallel between these facts and the behavior of Hydra in the presence of strychnine. In both cases new positions of stability are reached by modifying the original conditions of stability; and in both, the old positions of stability are regained only by returns to the original conditions of stability so gradual as to afford time sufficient for the necessary transformations in the systems themselves.

The forms which both organic and inorganic systems assume thus appear to be functions of the conditions in which they exist.

The fact that Hydra is able to regain a position of stability from which it had been displaced connects the behavior of this organism not only with the physical phenomena already cited, but still more intimately with the large class of chemical reactions which are similarly characterized by equilibrium and reversibility. Such reactions do not proceed to completion, which is probably always the case wherever the mixture of the systems under transformation is homogeneous, as in the case of solutions. They occur widely among carbon compounds. The following typical case will suffice to indicate their essential characteristics.

When ethyl alcohol and acetic acid are mixed, a reaction ensues which yields ethyl acetate and water. But ethyl acetate and water react together also, yielding ethyl alcohol and acetic acid. This second reaction, in a direction opposite to the first, proceeds in the beginning more slowly also. There comes a time, however, when the speeds of the two reactions are equal. A position of equilibrium or apparent rest is thus reached, which persists as long as the relative proportions of the component substances remain unchanged.

A great many reversible reactions are made possible by enzymes. In the presence of diastase, glucose yields glycogen and water, which, reacting together in the opposite direction, yield glucose again. In the presence of emulsin, amygdalin is decomposed into glucose, hydrocyanic acid and benzoic aldehyde, and reformed from them. Similarly in the presence of lipase, esters are reformed from alcohols and fatty acids, their decomposition products.

With the introduction of enzymes, certain complications ensue. Though it has been shown that lipase acts as a true catalyser, this may not hold for all, especially for proteolytic, enzymes. That reversible reactions actually occur in proteids, however, accompanied as they are in some cases at least by certain displacements of the position of equilibrium, there appears to be no question.[2]

[2] Robertson, Univ. Calif. Publ. Physiol., 3, 1909, p. 115.

These examples are but suggestions of the many reversible reactions that have now been observed among the compounds of carbon. That they have peculiar significance for the present discussion resides in the fact that living substance is composed of carbon compounds, so many and in such exceedingly complex relations as to present endless possibilities for shifting equilibria and the physical and chemical adjustments resulting therefrom.

With these facts in mind we may now turn from the consideration of acclimatization to a brief discussion of certain phenomena of regulation--adaptive reactions that are especially conspicuous in the growth and development of organisms, but separated by no sharp dividing line from adaptive reactions of the other type.

When a fragment of an organism transforms, under appropriate conditions, into a typical individual, the process includes degenerative aa well as regenerative phases. There is always some simplification of the structures present, whose character and amount is determined by the degree of specialization which has been attained. The smaller the piece, within certain limits, and the younger physiologically, the more nearly does it return to embryonic conditions, a fact which can be studied admirably in the hydroid Corymorpha. In some cases the simplification is accomplished by abrupt sacrifice of highly specialized parts, as in Corymorpha, when in a process of simplification connected with acclimatization to aquarium conditions, the large tentacles of well-grown specimens fall away completely from their bases. In other hydroids (e. g., Campanularia) the tentacles may be completely absorbed into the body of the hydranth from which they originally sprang. Among tissue cells degenerative changes may be abrupt, as in the sacrifice of the highly specialized fibrillae in muscle cells; or they may be very gradual, as in the transformation of cells of one sort into another that occurs in the regeneration of tentacles in Tubularia.

An interesting case of absorption of parts came to my notice while studying the larvae of the pennatulid coral Renilla some fifteen years ago. As will be remembered, Renilla possesses eight tentacles with numerous processes pinnately arranged. During a period of enforced starvation, these pinnae were gradually absorbed, and the tentacles shortened, from tip to base. With the advent of food--in the form of annelid eggs--the reverse of these events took place. The tentacles lengthened and the pinnae reappeared, the larvae assuming their normal aspect.

It appears, then, that in some circumstances at least, the process of simplification may resemble very nearly, even in details, a reversal of the process of differentiation. That one is actually in every respect the reverse of the other is undoubtedly not true. This, however, is not to be wondered at. Mechanical inhibitions that are so conspicuous in some cases (e. g., Corymorpha) are to be expected to a certain degree in all. The regenerative process itself depends upon the cooperation of many physical and chemical factors, in many and complex physicochemical systems in varying conditions of equilibrium. And it is important to note that even the equilibrium reactions by which a single proteid in the presence of an enzyme, is made and unmade, do not appear always to follow identically the same path in opposite directions.[3]

[3] Robertson, vid. sup., p. 269.

Whatever their course in the instances cited and in many others, reversals in the processes of development do take place. In perhaps their simplest form these can be seen in egg cells. The development of a fragment of an egg as a complete whole involves reversals in the processes of differentiation of a very subtle order. The fusion of two eggs to one involves similar readjustments. Such phenomena have been held to be peculiar to living machines only. Yet it may be pointed out that there are counterparts of both in the behavior of so-called liquid crystals. When liquid crystals of paraazoxyzimtsaure-Athylester are divided, the parts are smaller in size, but otherwise identical with the parent crystal in form, structure and optical properties. The fusion of two crystals of ammonium oleate forming a single crystal of larger size has also been observed. Though changes in equilibrium that accompany such behavior of liquid crystals are undoubtedly very much simpler than the changes that accompany the regulatory processes exhibited by the living egg, the striking resemblance between the phenomena themselves tempts us not to magnify the difference.

Further temptation in the same direction is offered by the recent discovery[4] that the processes of development stimulated in the eggs of the sea urchin Arbacia by butyric acid or weak bases, and evidenced by the formation of the fertilization membrane, is reversible. When such eggs are treated with a weak solution of sodium cyanide or chloral hydrate, they return to the resting condition. Upon fertilization with spermatozoa, in normal sea water, they proceed again to develop.

[4] Loeb, Arch. f. Entw., 28, 1914, p. 277.

The facts that have now been briefly summarized have been selected to emphasize the growing intimacy between the biological and the inorganic sciences. No harm can conceivably come from it. On the contrary, there is every reason to be hopeful that the investigation of biological problems in the impersonal spirit that has long distinguished the maturer sciences of physics and chemistry will continue to develop a better control and fuller understanding of the processes in living organisms, of which the phenomena of variation in general, and of adaptation in particular, are but incidental effects.

WHY CERTAIN PLANTS ARE ACRID

BY PROFESSOR WILLIAM B. LAZENBY

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

EVER since my first lessons in botany, the characteristic qualities and properties of plants have given me much thought. Why certain plants produced aromatic oils and ethers, while others growing under the same conditions produced special acids or alkaloids, was a subject of endless speculation.

The pleasing aroma of the bark of various trees and shrubs, the spicy qualities of the foliage and seeds of other plants; the intense acridity; the bitterness; the narcotic, the poisonous principle in woody and herbaceous species; all were intensely interesting.

This interest was biological rather than chemical. I cared less for the ultimate composition of the oils, acids, alkalis, etc., than I did for their use or office in the plant economy, and their effect upon those who might use them.

Perhaps no one plant interested me more from this point of view, than the well-known Indian turnip (Arisoema triphyllum). As a boy I was well acquainted with the signally acrid quality of this plant; I was well aware of its effect when chewed, yet I was irresistibly drawn to taste it again and again. It was ever a painful experience, and I suffered the full penalty of my rashness. As an awn from a bearded head of barley will win its disputed way up one's sleeve, and gain a point in advance despite all effort to stop or expel it, so did every resolution, every reflection, counteract the very purpose it was summoned to oppose, and to my sorrow I would taste the drastic, turnip-shaped corm wherever opportunity occurred.

It is a well-known fact that the liquid content of the cells of plants contain numerous inorganic substances in solution. Among these, not considering oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide, there are the salts of calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, sulphur and phosphorus. The above substances are found in the cells of every living plant. Other substances like salts of sodium and silica are also found, but these are not regarded as essential to the life and growth of plants. They appear to be present because the plant has not the power to reject them. Many of the substances named above, are found deposited either in an amorphous or crystalline form in the substance of the cell wall. In addition to this, crystals of mineral matter, having various shapes and sizes, are often found in the interior of cells. The most common of these interior cell crystals are those composed of calcium oxalate and calcium carbonate. Others composed of calcium phosphate, calcium sulphate and silica are sometimes found. These crystals may occur singly or in clusters of greater or less size. In shape they are prismatic or needle-like.

It is not the object of this paper to treat of plant crystals in general, but to consider the peculiar effect produced by certain forms when found in some well-known plants.

The extreme acridity or intense pungency of the bulbs, stems, leaves and fruit of various species of the Araceae or Arum family, was recognized centuries ago. The cause of this characteristic property or quality was, until a comparatively recent date, not definitely determined.

As far as I am aware the first scientific investigation of this subject was made by the writer. At a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held at Indianapolis in 1890, some studies and experiments were reported in a short paper entitled "Notes upon the Crystals in certain species of the Arum Family."

This paper expressed the belief that the acridity of the Indian turnip and other plants belonging to the same family, was due to the presence of needle-shaped crystals or raphides found in the cells of these plants. This conclusion was not accepted by Professor T. J. Burrill, of the University of Illinois, nor by other eminent botanists who were present and took part in the discussion that followed the reading of the paper.

The opposition was based mainly on the well-known fact that many other plants like the grape, rhubarb, fuchsia, spiderwort, etc., are not at all, or but slightly acrid, although the raphides are as abundant in them as in the Indian turnip and its allies.

Up to this time the United States Dispensatory and other works on pharmacy, ascribed the following rather indefinite cause for the acridity of the Indian turnip. It was said to be due to an acrid, extremely volatile principle. This principle was insoluble in water and alcohol, but soluble in ether. It was dissipated both by heating and drying, and by this means the acridity is destroyed. There was no opinion given as to the real nature of this so-called principle.

More recently it has been intimated that the acridity may be due to some ferment or enzyme, which has been derived in part from the self-decomposition of protoplasm and in part by the process of oxidation and reduction.

Here the question appeared to rest. At all events I was unable to glean any further knowledge from the sources at my command.

Some time later the subject was taken up in a more comprehensive manner and the following report is the first detailed description of an investigation that has occupied more or less of my leisure for some years.

A dozen or more species of plants have been used for examination and study. Among these were:

Indian turnip (Arisoema triphyllum). Green dragon (Arisoema dracontium). Sweet-flag (Acorus). Skunk cabbage (Spathyema). Calla (Richardia). Caladium (Caladium). Calocasia (Calocasia). Phyllodendron (Phyllodendron). Fuchsia (Fuchsia). Wandering Jew (Tradescantia). Rhubarb (Rheum). Grape (Vitis). Onion (Allium). Horse-radish (Armoracia).

Most of the plants selected were known to have crystals in certain parts. Some of them were known to be intensely acrid. In these the acridity was in every instance proportional to the number of crystals.

The following order of study was pursued and the results of each step noted. Only the more salient points of the methods employed and the conclusions reached are presented.

1. The Character of the Taste Itself.--It was readily noted that the sensation produced by chewing the various acrid plants was quite different. For example, the Indian turnip and its close allies do not give the immediate taste or effect that follows a similar testing of the onion or horse-radish. When the acridity of the former is perceived the sensation is more prickling than acrid.

The effect produced is more like the pricking of numerous needles. It is felt not only upon the tongue and palate, but wherever the part tasted comes into contact with the lips, roof of mouth or any delicate membrane. It is not perceived where this contact does not occur.

The acridity of the onion and horse-radish is perceived at once and often affects other parts than those with which it comes into direct contact.

2. The Acrid Principle Is Not Always Volatile.--This is shown by the fact that large quantities of the mashed or finely grated corms of the Indian turnip and allied species, produced no irritation of the eyes or nose even when these organs were brought into close contact with the freshly pulverized material. This certainly is in marked contrast with the effect produced by freshly grated horse-radish, peeled onions, crushed mustard seed when the same test is applied.

It seems fair to assume that in the latter case some principle that is volatile at ordinary air temperatures is present. The assumption that such principle is present in the former has no room.

In order to test this matter further a considerable quantity of the juice of the Indian turnip was subjected to careful distillation, with the result that no volatile principle or substance of any kind was found.

Various extractive processes were tried by using hot and cold water; alcohol, chloroform, benzene, etc. These failed in every instance to remove any substance that had a taste or effect anything like that found in the fresh Indian turnip.

3. The Acrid Principle Is Not Soluble in Ether.--Inasmuch as various works on pharmacy made the claim that the active or acrid principle of the plants in question was soluble in ether, this was the next subject for investigation. The juice was expressed from a considerable quantity of the mashed Indian turnip. This juice was clear and by test was found to possess the same acrid property as the unmashed corms.

Some of the juice and an equal quantity of ether were placed into a cylinder and well shaken. After waiting until the ether had separated a few drops of the liquid were put into the mouth. For a little time no result was perceived, but as soon as the effect of the ether had passed away the same painful acridity was manifest as was experienced before the treatment with the ether. A natural conclusion from this test was that the acridity might come from some principle soluble in ether.

Observing that the ether was quite turbid and wishing to learn the cause, a drop or two was allowed to evaporate on a glass slide. Examining the residue with a microscope it was found to consist of innumerable raphides or needle-like crystals. Some of the ether was then run through a filter. The filtrate was clear. An examination showed it to be entirely free from raphides, and it had lost every trace of its acridity. The untreated acrid juice of the Indian turnip, calla, and other plants of the same family was then filtered and in every instance the filtered juice was bland and had lost every trace of its acridity. These tests and others that need not be mentioned, proved conclusively that the acridity of various species of the Arum family was not due to a volatile principle, but was due to the needle-shaped crystals found so abundantly in these plants.

Several questions yet remained to be answered. (1) If these needle-like crystals or raphides are the cause of the acridity of the plants just mentioned, why do they not produce the same effect in the fuchsia, tradescantia and other plants where they are known to be just as abundant? (2) Why does the Indian turnip lose its acridity on being heated? (3) Why does the dried Indian turnip lose its acridity?

It was first thought that the raphides found in plants having no acridity, might be of different chemical composition than those which produce this effect.

A chemical examination proved beyond question that the raphides were of the same composition. The needle-shaped crystals in all the plants selected for study were composed of calcium oxalate. The crystals, found in grape, rhubarb, fuchsia and tradescantia were identical in form, fineness and chemical composition with those found in the plants of the Arum family. How then account for the painfully striking effect in one case and the non-effect in the other? This was the perplexing question.

In expressing some juice from the stems and leaves of the fuchsia and tradescantia it was found to be quite unlike that of the Indian turnip and calla. The juice of the latter was clear and limpid; that of the former quite thick and mucilaginous. There was no difference as to the abundance of crystals revealed by the microscope.

After diluting the ropy, mucilaginous juice with water, and shaking it thoroughly with an equal volume of ether, there was no turbidity seen in the supernatent ether. Allowing a few drops of the ether to evaporate scarcely any crystals could be found. Practically none of them had been removed from the insoluble mucilaginous covering. Here and there an isolated specimen was all that could be seen. So closely were these small crystals enveloped with the mucilaginous matter that it was almost impossible to separate or dissect them from it.

It was now easy to explain why certain plants whose cells were crowded with raphides were bland to the taste, while other plants with the same crystals were extremely acrid.

In one case the crystals were neither covered nor embedded in an insoluble mucilage, but were free to move. Thus when the plant was chewed or tasted the sharp points of these needle-like crystals came into contact with the tongue, lips and membranous surface of the mouth.

In the other case the insoluble mucilage which surrounded the crystals prevented all free movement and they produced no irritation.

Why do these intensely acrid, aroid plants lose their acridity on being heated? It is well known that the corms of the Indian turnip and its allies contain a large amount of starch. In subjecting this starch to heat it becomes paste-like in character. This starch paste acts in the same manner as the insoluble mucilage. It prevents the free movement of the crystals and in this way all irritant action is precluded. In heating the Indian turnip and other corms, it was found that the heat applied must be sufficient to change the character of the starch or the so-called acridity was not destroyed.

One other question remains to be answered. It has long been noted that the old or thoroughly dried corms of the Indian turnip are not acrid like those that are fresh. The explanation is simple. As the plant dries or loses its moisture, the walls of the cells collapse and the crystals are closely encased in the hard, rigid matter that surrounds them. This prevents free movement and the crystals can not exert any irritant action.

It is generally believed by biologists that the milky juice, aromatic compounds, alkaloids, etc., found in plants have no direct use in the economy of the plant. They are not connected with the nutritive processes. They are excretions or waste products that the plant has little or no power to throw off. There can be little doubt, however, that these excretory substances often serve as a means of protection. Entomologists have frequently stated that the milky juice and resins found in the stems of various plants act as a protection against stem boring insects. In like manner the bulbs, stems and leaves of plants that are crowded with crystals have a greater immunity from injurious biting insects than plants that are free from crystals. It is quite generally believed that the formation of crystals is a means of eliminating injurious substances from the living part of the plant. These substances may be regarded as remotely analogous to those organic products made by man in the chemical laboratory.

Some progress has been made in this direction, but so far the main results are certain degradation-products such as aniline dyes derived from coal tar; salicylic acid; essences of fruits; etc. Still these and many other discoveries of the same nature do not prove that the laboratory of man can compete with the laboratory of the living plant cell.

Man has the power to break down and simplify complex substances and by so doing produce useful products that will serve his purposes. We may combine and re-combine but so far we only replace more complex by simpler combinations.

The plant alone through its individual cells, and by its living protoplasm has fundamentally creative power. It can build up and restore better than it can eliminate waste products.

HOW OUR ANCESTORS WERE CURED

BY PROFESSOR CARL HOLLIDAY

UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA

SUPPOSE you had a bad case of rheumatism, and your physician came to your bedside and exclaimed loudly, "Hocus pocus, toutus talonteus, vade celeriter jubeo! You are cured." What would you think, what would you do, and what fee would you pay him? Probably, in spite of your aches and pangs, you would make astonishing speed--for a rheumatic person--in proffering him the entire room to himself. But there was a time--and that as late as Shakespeare's day--when so-called doctors in rural England used just such words not only for rheumatism, but for many another disease. And to this hour the fakir on the street corner uses that opening expression, "Hocus pocus." Those words simply prove how slowly the Christian religion was absorbed by ancient Anglo-Saxon paganism; for "Hocus pocus" is but the hastily mumbled syllables of the Catholic priest to his early English congregation--"Hoc est corpus," "this is the body"; and the whole expression used by the old-time doctor meant merely that in the name of the body of Christ he commanded the disease to depart quickly.

How superstitions and ancient rites do persist. To this hour the mountaineers of southwestern Virginia and eastern Tennessee believe that an iron ring on the third finger of the left hand will drive away rheumatism, and to my personal knowledge one fairly intelligent Virginian believed this so devoutly that he actually never suffered with rheumatic pains unless he took off the iron ring he had worn for fifteen years. It is an old, old idea--this faith in the ring-finger. The Egyptians believed that a nerve led straight from it to the heart; the Greeks and Romans held that a blood-vessel called the "vein of love" connected it closely with that organ; and the medieval alchemists always stirred their dangerous mixtures with that finger because, in their belief, it would most quickly indicate the presence of poison. So, too, many an ancient declared that whenever the ring-finger of a sufferer became numb, death was near at hand. Thus in twentieth century civilization we hear echoes of the life that Rameses knew when the Pyramids were building.

Our Anglo-Saxon forefathers had great faith in mysterious words. The less they understood these the more they believed in the curative power. Thus the name of foreign idols and gods brought terror to the local demons that enter one's body, and when Christianity first entered England, and its meanings were but dimly understood, the names of saints, apostles and even the Latin and Greek forms of "God" and "Jesus" were enemies to all germs. Then, too, what comfort a jumbling of many languages brought to the patient, especially if the polyglot cure were expressed in rhythmic lines. Here, for instance, in at least five languages, is a twelfth century cure for gout:

Meu, treu, mor, phor, Teux, za, zor, Phe, lou, chri Ge, ze, on.