3 o6 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



simple ; an insect devouring a plant is relatively easy to handle 

 and study ; molecular and colloidal changes in the protoplasm 

 are not. 



Investigations in Temperate Climates 



We now turn to those branches of scientific work which 

 could be better and more cheaply conducted in temperate 

 climates, away from the cotton-fields, and in closer touch with 

 the spinners on the one hand, and with learned societies on 

 the other. 



Such work would naturally fall into two categories, firstly, 

 determination of constants for the reaction of various species of 

 cotton to definite changes in a single environmental condition, 

 and secondly, analysis of the technique of spinning in its relation 

 to the raw cotton. 



No very definite statements can be made as to the possibility 

 of applicable results from the first category of researches. 

 Indeed, such research should not be conducted with any 

 immediate economic object. Many structural features may be 

 recognised, involved, and eliminated in studying the growth 

 of cotton, but there ultimately remain some phenomena which 

 can only be ascribed to the protoplasm itself. This residuum 

 seems to analyse up into the specific velocity of growth under 

 conditions when temperature is the limiting factor, and into 

 liability to senescence or auto-toxic effects, under conditions 

 involving prolonged exposure to excessive heat, deficient 

 aeration, or shortage of water-supply. To obtain any direct 

 evidence upon only the first of these possibilities is not very 

 easy ; it involves the construction of special apparatus, and it 

 demands continued series of observations and facilities for their 

 conduct, such as are only obtainable in temperate zones. It is 

 necessary for such research that the root itself should be exposed 

 to high temperatures, but it is not necessary that the observer 

 should also be exposed. 



Whether any utilitarian advantages would accrue from an 

 understanding of these temperature-growth phenomena or not, 

 they are nevertheless of general interest, and would appear to 

 be fairly fundamental. If it were possible, as it well may be, 

 to prescribe the suitable temperature locality for a new pure 

 strain by taking its Growth-Temperature Diagram, a great deal 



