99 
NATURE 
with the pulsating heart, so also with the pulsating 
leaflet, the rhythmic frequency is increased under the 
action of warmth, and lessened under cold, increased 
frequency being attended by diminution of amplitude, 
and vice versd. Under ether, there is a temporary 
arrest, revivai being possible when the vapour is blown 
Fic. 9.—Record of automatic pulsations in Desmodium gyrans. 
off (Fig. 10). More fatal is the effect of chloroform. 
The most extraordinary parallelism, however, lies in 
the fact that those poisons which arrest the beat of the 
heart in a particular way, arrest the plant-pulsation 
also in a corresponding manner, the arrest produced 
being either at systole or diastole, depending on the 
Fic. 10,—Arrest of pulsation of Desmodium under ether ; restoration of 
pulsation on blowing off ether. The arrow indicates the time of appli- 
cation. 
characteristic reaction of the poison. Taking advan. 
tage of the antagonistic reactions of specific poisons, 
I have been able to revive a poisoned leaflet by the 
application of another counteracting poison 
Instantaneous Record of Growth. 
As a further example of automatic activity we may 
take the phenomenon of growth. The rate of growth 
is so extremely slow that even the proverbial pace of 
the snail is two thousand times quicker! It would 
take an average plant two hundred years to cover the 
short distance of a mile. This extreme slowness is a 
serious drawback in the investigation on growth. For 
even with the existing magnifying growth-recorders 
it would take many hours for the variation of growth 
to be recorded under a changed condition in 
the environment. The results thus obtained are sub- 
ject to errors brought about by the variation ct 
grewth which takes place spontaneously in the course 
of a few hours. Growth can be assumed to remain 
constant only for a short time; on this account it is 
necessary to conclude an experiment in the course of a 
few minutes. 
The difficulties have been overcome in my high 
magnification crescograph, which records the absolute 
rate of growth in a time so short as the single beat 
of the pendulum. The various magnifications avail- 
able are a thousand or ten. thousand times. For 
demonstration purposes I have been able to secure a 
magnification of a million times. ~The infinitesimal 
gcrowth thus becomes magnified so as to appear rush- 
ing forward as if in a race. The actual rate of growth 
and its variations under the action of drugs, of food- 
materials, of various electrical and other forms of 
stimuli, are thus recorded in the course of a few 
minutes. The great importance of this method of 
investigation in agriculture is sufficiently obvious. 
The Plant’s Response to the Shock of Death. 
A time comes when, after an answer to a supreme 
shock, there is a sudden end of the plant’s power to 
give any further response. This supreme shocks is the 
NO. VO eO2d 
De 3 28 A cy 
[Juv 23, 1914 
shock of death. Even in this crisis there is no imme- 
diate change in the placid appearance of the plant. 
Drooping and withering are events that occur long 
after death itself. How does the plant, then, give 
this last answer? In man, at the critical moment, a 
spasm passes through the whole body, and similarly 
in the plant I find thata great contractile spasm 
takes place. This is accompanied by an elec- 
trical spasm also. In the script of the death- 
recorder the line, that up to this point was 
being drawn, becomes suddenly reversed and 
then ends. This is the last answer of the 
plant. 
The plant has thus been made to 
exhibit many of the activities which we 
have been accustomed to associate only 
with animal life. In one case, as in the 
other, stimulus of any kind will induce a responsive 
thrill. There are rhythmic tissues in the plant which, 
like those in the animal, go on throbbing ceaselessly. 
These spontaneous pulsations in one case, as in the 
other, are affected by various drugs in an identical 
manner. And in one case, as in the other, the 
tremor of excitation is transmitted with a definite and 
measured speed from point to point along conducting 
channels. The establishment of this similarity of 
responsive actions in the plant and animal will be 
found of the highest significance; for we now realise 
that it is by the study of the simpler phenomena of 
irritability in the vegetal organisms that we may 
expect to elucidate the more complex physiological 
reactions of the animal. 
UNIVERSITY AND, EDUCATIONAL 
INT ELEIGEN CE 
BiRMINGHAM.—The recent endowment of the Poynt- 
ing chair of physics by Sir George Kenrick fulfils the 
purpose of perpetuating the memory of the late Prof. 
Poynting; but it is known that a number of friends 
and admirers would welcome the opportunity of con- 
tributing to a memorial of a somewhat more personal 
kind. A circular is, therefore, being issued by a 
representative committee, inviting contributions to a 
Poynting Memorial Fund. The proposed objects of 
this fund are (a) the execution of a portrait of the late 
professor, either as a painting or as a medallion; (b) 
the publication of his collected scientific papers; and 
(c) the formation of a fund from which assistance can 
be given to research students in physics. Donations 
and promises to the amount of about 350]. have been re- 
ceived already, but it is hoped that at least 1oool. will 
be realised. The hon. secretary is Mr. G. H. Morley, 
and the hon. treasurer Dr. G. A. Shakespear, to 
whom contributions may be sent. 
Lonpon.—At the meeting of the Senate on July 15, 
the last of the present session, the D.Sc. degree was 
conferred on the following students:—Mr. David 
Segaller, of the South-Western Polytechnic, in chem- 
istry; Mr. J. H. Orton, of the Royal College of 
Science, in zoology; and Mr. H. Chatley and Mr. 
G. S. Coleman, external students, in engineering. 
Mr. T. S. Moore was appointed to the University 
chair of chemistry tenable at Royal Holloway College. 
Since 1907 Mr. Moore has been tutor in chemistry at 
Magdalen College, Oxford. A 
In response to a request from the Board of Control 
for suggestions as to methods of encouraging scientific 
research into the causes and treatment of mental 
diseases and mental defect, it was decided to recom- 
mend that individual grants should be given to a few 
thoroughly trained observers for the investigation of 
fundamental problems. 
A FURTHER gift of 10,0001. has been made to the 
Medical School of University College, Cardiff, by the 
es 
