SOME FACTORS IN RESEARCH 281 



One of the strongest factors in fundamental research is the 

 capaeitjr to develop new methods and new apparatus as the 

 newer problems are approached. I anticipate stimulation rather 

 than inhibition as a result of the greater independence of our 

 work, especially in relation to German work, due to the war. 

 The importance of American inventive genius has always been 

 felt in mechanical inventions particularly, but we see this same 

 quality now dominant in the methods employed and the appara- 

 tus designed for investigation in the basic sciences during the 

 past ten years or so. Without the micro-nitrogen methods and 

 the ammo-nitrogen devices, without the American work on 

 lecithin analysis, and especially that on vegetable proteins and 

 nucleic acids, biochemical science would not have reached its 

 present goal. The recent work on the measurement of osmotic 

 pressure is a standard of excellence, and even oxidase measure- 

 ments have become quantitative. In the field of hydrogen-ion 

 concentration pioneer work was done and later both colorimetric 

 and electrometric methods advantageously standardized. 



In the field of physiological ecology some striking advances 

 are in the determination of the wilting coefficient of plants, meth- 

 ods for the investigation of the evaporating power of the air and 

 the relation between transpiration and evaporation, the experi- 

 mental method as applied to field ecological study and the ef- 

 fects of bog waters upon vegetation. 



In recent times fundamental researches have been contributed 

 on the "hydration" relations of the colloids and the effects of 

 salts and other compounds upon the hydration capacity, contrib- 

 uting somewhat, perhaps, to the intricate factors in growth. 

 Nowhere has the physiology of the bacteria and of the fungi re- 

 ceived such careful study with special reference to nutrition and 

 to the differentiation of species through their physiological ac- 

 tivities, and new methods of approach have been the key to this 

 success. 



The study of antagonistic salt action has been followed most 

 completely, and practically speaking the recent developments in 

 this field have been largely American. In fact, as one looks 

 through the various major topics in the field of physiology it is 



