544 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



contain small hyaline spores. The nitrogen assimilation is much less 

 energetic than in the case of Clostridium pastor ianum. 



"1i Intramolecular Respiration.*— E. Godlewski finds that, whereas 

 lupin seeds in pure water develop in absence of oxygen only very slight 

 intramolecular respiration, this form of respiration is well marked when 

 the seeds are placed in a suitable sugar solution, and may continue for 

 six to eight weeks. Grape-sugar is used more easily than cane-sugar, 

 which has first to be inverted. The intramolecular respiration, which is 

 developed at the cost of the sugar supplied to the seeds, facilitates the 

 hydrolysis of the reserve carbohydrate of the seeds and its use for intra- 

 molecular respiration, so that seeds placed in sugar solution use more of 

 their own carbohydrates than when lying in pure water. During intra- 

 molecular respiration under these circumstances changes also occur in 

 the contained proteids, about 30 p.c. becoming decomposed before death 

 occursifrom want of oxygen. The nitrogen of the decomposed proteid 

 appears chiefly (more than 75 p.c.) in the form of amino-acids ; only 9 

 to 10 p.c. appears in the form of asparagin. This last result suggests 

 that in absence of oxygen only dissimilation of the proteids is possible 

 in the higher plants — ■ not a synthetic formation of asparagin — and 

 from this point of view a closer investigation of the formation of pro- 

 teid, in absence of oxygen in the case of the higher plants, seems 

 desirable. 



Irritability. 



Effect of Chemical Irritation on Respiration of Fungi.f — Ada 

 Watterson reviews previous work on this subject, the results of which 

 indicate that small quantities of certain poisonous substances act as 

 stimulants, increasing the growth of certain plants, and also increasing 

 respiration. Since, in the case of fungi, it has been found that stimula- 

 tion raises the economic coefficient of the sugar — i.e. allows the plant to 

 make use of the sugar to form a greater amount of dry substance in a 

 given time, the question of the amount of C0 2 , which is produced at the 

 same time, becomes of interest. The author finds from her own experi- 

 ments that the addition of small quantities of zinc sulphate, iron 

 sulphate and lithium chloride, increases the rate of growth of Sterig- 

 matocystis and Pemcillium, so that a larger amount of dry substance is 

 formed within a given time than in normal culture ; that at the same time 

 there has been an increase in the production of C0 2 , but not too great 

 to be accounted for by the enlarged area of the plant. The ratio of dry 

 weight to C0 2 in the irritated fungus is, therefore, approximately equal 

 to that of the normal. Taking into account previous results which show 

 that the effect of the addition of such poisons is to enable the plant to 

 make more economical use of the carbohydrates supplied to it, we can 

 interpret this action as a stimulus which causes the fungus to transform 

 more of the food material into its own substance and less into waste 

 products such as oxalic acid, while at the same time the respiration 

 remains relatively unchanged. 



* Bull. Interuat. Acad. Soi. Cracow, 1901, pp. 115-58. 

 t Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, xxxi. (1904) pp. 291-303. 



