PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING 107 



alive. The cells of an ajtple in the spring may be thawed out and the 

 actual life of the protoplasm still retained. 



]\Ir. Morrill: And the niovcnuMil oi' jiandling of the spocimons duriufj 

 that time has what elTcet? 



Prof. Waite: Well, I do not know; that is rather a new point. I did not 

 saj' anything about that, jtuiposely, because I did not know anything 

 about it. It is very inttM'csting, it shows that this theory of tension nuiy 

 ha^e something to do with the jars. I thought of tiiat when Mr. Tracy 

 spoke of the jar of slanmiing the door, that maybe it disarranged the 

 particles. You know the paiticles of a crystal are laid in definite, geometri- 

 cal form. For instance, water crystalizes in definite forms, and the dilfer- 

 ent molecules are known by the shape in which they crA'stalize; that 

 is, the particles go into those crystals in a certain geometrical position, 

 and it is a possibility that this jarring and bruising may start decompo- 

 sition at some point. 



Prof. Tracy: Is it not possible that the water crystal formed in the 

 inside of cells or in the inter-cellular spaces may, under movement of the 

 plant, give mechanical injury to the cell walls, and thus induce injury — 

 is not that a physical possibility? A very slight mechanical movement 

 on the part of a foreign body in living tissue may cause great irritation 

 and injury — for instance, we have embedded in our flesh a piece of 

 hard foreign matter; the slightest possible movement will cause great 

 pain through friction and mechanical irritation to the surrounding parts. 

 Why is it not possible that the injury to frozen vegetable matter comes 

 partly at least from the mechanical injury which results from the hard 

 crystal being formed inside of the vegetable tissue, and thereby in move- 

 ment breaking through the cells and so. tearing them down, as you might 

 say? 



Prof. Waite: That would be the actual bruising — the handling and 

 shipping, and that sort of thing. Of course, it Avould be quite reasonable 

 to suppose that that would disarrange it. Of course, sound is vibration. 

 There is no doubt that even the slamming of a door, causes movement to 

 take place within a short distance in all sorts of things. For instance, the 

 movement of a freight train will jar the chemist's balances two or three 

 squares away, and the great astronomical instruments in the naval obser- 

 vatory; they are deflecting the streets for two or three squares around, 

 to keep from disturbing the telescopes, showing that a great deal more 

 motion takes place in the small things we are talking about. 



^Ir. Eeid: Do you su])pose that the breaking of those crystals alone, 

 without regard to the rupture of the cellular tissue, would be sufficient 

 to start disintegration or decay? 



Prof. Waite: O, I think so; but then I do not believe these jars would 

 break the crystals. I think it would be nu)re likely to occur along the 

 point where the crystal came in contact with the solid portions. In other 

 words, at the point where these molecules would start. 



Mr. ^forrill: The connection would be broken. Prof. Waite: Yes. sir. 



^Ir. ^lorrill: "Well, the crystals are veiy delicate, of course. Possibly 

 the jarring would be sufficient to cause the collapse of those. 



Prof. Waite: I should think it would take a very much less disturbance 

 than the cracking of the crystal to break un th(> connection, as IMr. Morrill 

 suggested, lietween the ci'yslal and the solid jxu'tion. 



