miscellaneous: experimental teratosis 623 



(about 3>2 cubic feet), a temperature of 9° to 20°C., and gener- 

 ally an exposure of 48 hours. When chloroform is used the 

 time and temperature may be the same but the dose is reduced 

 to 6 to 9 grams per hectolitre. The soil must be fairly dry 

 otherwise much ether will be absorbed and the results dis- 

 appointing. Ether vapor being heavier than air and explosive 

 in the presence of fire, it must be liberated in the top of the air- 

 chamber and the work must be done out of door or in a room 

 where there is no fire. Johannsen states that he derived much 

 benefit from a perusal of Miiller-Thurgau's writings and from 

 the earlier work of the great French physiologist, Claude Bernard. 



In 1909 Dr. Hans Molisch of Vienna published a very inter- 

 esting paper showing that the same results obtained with ether 

 and chloroform can be obtained simply by dipping the tops of 

 the plants into warm water (30° to 40°C.) for a short period 

 (6 to 12 hours). They are then set on the greenhouse bench 

 under suitable conditions and bloom prematurely just as if 

 they had been etherized. This method he states had been used 

 for a considerable time by Russian gardeners but Molisch was 

 the first to make exact experiments and to bring it to the 

 attention of the scientific world. 



Neither Miiller-Thurgau, Johannsen nor Molisch have off- 

 ered satisfactory explanations for the results obtained. Miiller- 

 Thurgau's explanation that the hasty pushing of the buds is due 

 to the presence of sugar in the tissues cannot be held to be a 

 proper explanation since, as Johannsen points out, plants in a 

 dormant state sometimes contain sugar in quantity, for exam- 

 ple, garlic bulbs, and there is also always a considerable quan- 

 tity of sugar circulating during the summer season in a variety of 

 deciduous plants while their winter buds are forming and yet 

 these buds do not ordinarily push. Preceding Johannsen's 

 work Dr. Raphael Dubois, professor of physiology in Lyons, 

 France, published a paper (1891) on the action of chloroform in 

 which he claims that the anesthetic acts by dehydration. I 

 was unaware of the existence of Dubois' paper until November, 

 1919, when I read for the first time Johannsen's paper, although 

 I had already arrived theoretically at the same conclusion, as 

 may be seen from the preceding pages which were then in type. 



