558 



PHYSIOLOGY. 



chemistry by labeling it as vital was a confession 

 of ignorance and a bar to progress. It might be 

 that there is a special force in living things that 

 distinguishes them from the inorganic world. 

 If this is so, the laws that regulate this force 

 must be discovered and measured; and the au- 

 thor had no doubt that these laws when discov- 

 ered would be found to be as immutable and 

 regular as the force of gravitation. He was 

 hopeful, however, that the scientific workers of 

 the future would discover that this supposed vital 

 force is. due to certain chemical and physical 

 properties of living matter that have not yet 

 been br6ught into line with the known chemical 

 and physical laws that operate in the organic 

 world, but which as our knowledge of chemistry 

 and physics increase will ultimately be found 

 to be subservient to those laws. Where a scien- 

 tific man says this or that vital phenomenon 

 can not be explained by the laws of chemistry 

 and physics, and therefore must be regulated by 

 laws of some other nature, he most unjustifiably 

 assumes that the laws of chemistry and physics 

 have all been discovered. The recent history of 

 science gives emphatic denial to such a supposi- 

 tion. 



Concerning the effect of extremely low tem- 

 peratures on the life of living organisms, Prof. 

 James Dewar observed in his presidential ad- 

 dress before the British Association that experi- 

 ment indicates that moderately high tempera- 

 tures are much more fatal, at least in the lower 

 forms of life, than exceedingly low ones. In a 

 series of typical bacteria exposed to the tempera- 

 ture of liquid air for twenty hours vitality was 

 not affected and its functional activities re- 

 mained unimpaired, while the cultures which 

 were obtained were normal in every respect. The 

 same result was obtained when liquid hydrogen 

 was substituted for liquid air. A similar persist- 

 ence of life in seeds has been demonstrated even 

 at the lowest temperatures. The seeds were frozen 

 for one hundred hours in liquid air, with no other 

 result than to affect their protoplasm with a 

 certain inertness from which it recovered with 

 warmth. Barley, peas, vegetable marrow, and 

 mustard-seeds were steeped for six hours in liquid 

 hydrogen without their properties of germina- 

 tion being disturbed. A recent research by Prof. 

 Macfayden had shown that many varieties of 

 micro-organisms could be exposed to the tem- 

 perature of liquid air for six months without ap- 

 preciable loss of vitality, although at such a tem- 

 perature the ordinary chemical properties of the 

 cell must cease. At such a temperature cells 

 could not be said to be either alive or dead, in 

 the ordinary acceptance of those words. It is 

 a new and hitherto unobtained condition of liv- 

 ing matter a third state. Certain species of 

 bacteria during the course of their vital processes 

 are capable of emitting light. If, however, the 

 cells be broken up at the temperature of liquid 

 air and the crushed contents are brought to the 

 ordinary temperature, the functions of luminos- 

 ity are found to have disappeared. This fact in- 

 dicates that luminosity is not due to the action 

 of a ferment lucifarase but that it is essen- 

 tially bound up with the vital processes of the 

 cells, and dependent for its production on the 

 intact organization of the cell. The attempts to 

 study by frigorific methods the physiology of the 

 cell have already yielded valuable and encoura- 

 ging results. 



The results of statistical investigations under- 

 taken to determine regarding the common belief 

 that men of great ability have larger heads than 

 the average population whether any head meas- 



urements, and if so, which ones, are correlated 

 with intellectual capacity, were communicated to 

 the Royal Society by Prof. Pearson in January. 

 The author pointed out that though the profes- 

 sional classes are more intellectual and have 

 larger mean head capacity than the hard-work- 

 ing classes, this did not lend any support to the 

 current notion; for the professional classes are 

 better developed physically, and the difference is 

 probably due only to difference of nurture. In 

 order to investigate the matter, a homogeneous 

 class should be taken. The author had pursued 

 his investigations among the undergraduates of 

 the University of Cambridge. The men were 

 divided into two groups honors men and poll 

 men and fourfold tables were made from, 1, 

 cephalic index and degree; 2, length of head 

 and degree; 3, breadth of head and degree. No 

 marked correlation was disclosed between ability 

 and the size or the shape of the head. The prob- 

 lem was next worked out in the light of meas- 

 urements made in schools, the measurements 

 being all reduced to correspond with an identical 

 age, the twelfth year being chosen as the stand- 

 ard. The pupils were divided, according to the- 

 records furnished by their teachers into the twa 

 classes of intelligent and slow. The results were 

 in complete agreement with those drawn from the 

 studies of the Cambridge undergraduates. The 

 comparisons were continued in more complete de- 

 tail with the Cambridge men, with the conclu- 

 sion, from the w T hole study, that there is in the 

 general population very insignificant correlation 

 between ability and either the shape or the size 

 of the head. 



In his lecture on Catalysis and Catalysts, Prof. 

 Wilhelm Ostwald spoke of enzymes as to be 

 looked upon as catalysts which are in the organs 

 during the life of the cell, and by the action of 

 which it discharges the greatest part of its du- 

 ties. Digestion and circulation were from begin- 

 ning to end regulated by enzymes ; and the funda- 

 mental life-activity of most bodies the acquisi- 

 tion of the necessary chemical energy by combus- 

 tion in atmospheric oxygen takes place with the 

 definite cooperation of enzymes, and without this 

 would be impossible ; for free oxygen is very inert 

 at the temperature of organisms, and without an 

 acceleration of the reaction the maintenance of 

 life would be impossible. Emphasis was placed by 

 Prof. Ostwald upon catalysis as a very impor- 

 tant physiological factor. The older chemistry 

 had proved unproductive in the explanation of 

 physiological phenomena, and it seemed as if 

 chemistry and physics were unable to contribute 

 anything decisive toward solving the riddle of 

 life. But it was the author's full conviction 

 that by means of the later advances of chemistry, 

 there lay before physiology a department no les* 

 important than that which was brought about 

 by Liebig through his first applications of chem- 

 ical science. 



Circulation. Hemoglobin and its derivatives 

 in the animal system have for many years been 

 regarded by physiologists as occupying a some- 

 what analogous position with that of chloropliyl 

 and its derivatives in the vegetable kingdom. 

 The view may be said to be the outcome of re- 

 cent chemical and spectroscopical research. Thus 

 these complex organic pigments produce charac- 

 teristic absorption bands in the ultra-violet part 

 of the spectrum. It has lately, however, been 

 shown by MM. L. Bier and L. Marchlewski that 

 this fact is not apparent in the spectra of all the 

 derivatives of the coloring matter of the blood 

 (hemoglobin) ; for these observers have demon- 

 strated by photographs of the spectra of bili- 



