Ixviii Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



March 1, 1897. 



President Gray in the chair, eighteen persons present. 



Mr. W. H. Rush gave some demonstrations illustrating the 

 formation of carbon dioxide and alcohol as a result of intra- 

 molecular respiration by plant tissues grown in an atmosphere 

 containing no free oxygen. For the demonstration of the 

 liberation of carbon dioxide, germinating seeds were used, the 

 atmosphere in the apparatus being replaced by hydrogen, and 

 the usual barium hydrate test being applied for the presence 

 of carbon dioxide. For the alcohol, a distillate was exhibited, 

 obtained from peas and also from fresh grapes, which, after 

 being superficially disinfected by corrosive sublimate, had 

 been allowed to remain for a period of some weeks in a her- 

 metically sealed vessel, the oxygen in which was very quickly 

 exhausted, leaving the atmosphere quite destitute of this ele- 

 ment in an uncombined state. On removal, the seeds or 

 grapes were crushed with water, and the alcohol removed by 

 distillation and demonstrated by the usual tests. It was ex- 

 plained that intramolecular respiration was supposed to result 

 from a breaking down of the living proteid molecules, as a 

 result of which dead molecules of two classes were formed, 

 nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous, the latter again splitting into 

 carbon dioxide, alcohol^ and some organic acid, with occasion- 

 ally a certain amount of hydrogen. With free oxygen, the 

 speaker stated, the same disintegration of the living molecules 

 occurred, but with this diflference, that the non-nitrogenous 

 portion again split into carbon dioxide, water, and some carbo- 

 hydrate. The nitrogenous product was stated to be in part as- 

 paragin, which, uniting with some carbohydrate like glucose, 

 was believed to form anew the living proteid molecule. 

 Owing to its prompt exhaustion in this manner, asparagin 

 was stated to acumulate in quantity only when carbohydrates 

 were absent, as, for instance, in seedlings grown in the dark. 



Mr. H. von Schrenk exhibited drawings and presented a 

 preliminary notice of an oedema of the roots of Salix nigra 

 which he had observed in the early part of the winter, along 

 the edges of a body of water in Forest Park. The swellings 

 were observed near the tips of actively growing roots, shortly 



