56 ENERGY OF LIVING PROTOPLASM. 



familiar with eelworms as gardeners are with slugs, Mr. G. Abbey 

 has also been a diligent investigator, knows the pest well, and has 

 meritoriously striven to conquer it. Mr. Hutchason and Mr. W. 

 Dyke have done good service in making clear to our readers the 

 life-history of the scourge, by delineations from original specimens 

 as represented in the accompanying plate, for the loan of which 

 we thank the publishers of Journal of Horticulture?^ 



Enerai^ of %\vmOi protoplasm. 



In the Bulletin of the Imperial University of Tokyo, Herr O. 

 Loew gives a detailed synopsis with regard to the present state of 

 our knowledge of the mode of formation, the structure, and the 

 functions of the protoplasm of living cells, both in non-chloro- 

 phyllous and in chlorophyllous plants. He calculates that some 

 microbes may give birth to a trillion of cells from a single one in 

 the course of twenty-four hours. A great number of details are 

 given with regard to the nutritive properties for bacteria of dif- 

 ferent organic substances. These are classified under four heads, 

 viz. : those which are good, moderate, and bad sources of carbon. 

 In chlorophyllus plants neither the nitrogen nor the sulphur is 

 combined with oxygen in the albumen ; a reduction of the 

 nitrates and sulphates must, therefore, have taken place, as in the 

 lower fungi. Asparagin was found to be one of the most widely 

 distributed of the intermediate substances in the production of 

 protoplasm. As a rule, its increase in the seedling runs parallel 

 with the decrease of carbo-hydrates. The access of air is indis- 

 pensable for the formation of asparagin and of protoplasm, but 

 not for the action of peptonising ferments. — Pharm. Journ. 



