344 MACDOUGAL AND SPOEHR— GROWTH AND IMBIBITION. 



cases. The principal axis of deposition of material was in the ver- 

 tical and the swelling in this direction would of course be corre- 

 spondingly in excess of that in the plane of the sections. It is 

 extremely unlikely that any of the colloidal masses of the cell are 

 iso-radial as to deposition or structure and the use of thin plates 

 seemed a feature which might increase the similarity of behavior 

 with that of the plant. The strands, sheets or masses of material 

 in the cell are of course mostly thinner than the plates used in the 

 experiments, which however would afifect speed of imbibition more 

 than final proportion. 



Trios of sections of sheets of the dried colloids 2 to 4 mm. by 

 3 to 6 mm. were placed in the bottom of stender dishes or of heavy 

 watch glasses securely seated on iron cylinders. Triangles of glass 

 were placed on the sections, and the vertical arms of auxographs 

 were rested in a socket in the center of the triangles. Any change 

 in thickness of the sections would be registered immediately. The 

 use of six instruments gave duplicate results of the effects of water, 

 acid and alkali, and each record was an integration or average of 

 .the swelling of three sections. 



The only albumen available when this plan was put into opera- 

 tion was a commercial egg-albumen, and this was first tested in 

 mixtures with large proportions of gelatine. The results of the 

 swellings are as follows : 



Gelatine 75 — Albumen 2j. 

 (Average of 3 tests.) 

 378.3 5697 508.7 



