\ I 



1907] CURRENT LITERATURE 



393 



The author draws thirty 'distinct conclusions, only a few of which can be noted 



here. 



normal or less than normal 



does not increase the resistance of the fungus to copper salts, and therefore has no 

 antitoxic value. Carbohydrates in the presence of a suitable mineral salt are 

 antitoxic to an extent which for a constant quantity of that salt becomes zero at 



centinormal 



hexoses. 



be correlated with a composi 



tion which includes a suitable carbon compound and a suitable mineral salt, 

 imited with an organic or a mineral acid. Such a combination the author desig- 

 nates a '^complex" in which the toxin and the antitoxin are present in proportions 

 which make a simple ratio representing a double compound (organo-metallic) 

 which suggests by its composition and modifications the side-chain of Ehrlich. 

 The germination of Penicillium in toxic solutions of copper is therefore to be 

 attributed to the presence of such a complex. The paper is really an elaborate 

 study of undoubted value, but the reviewer has not undertaken to digest the 

 evidence for the conclusions emnnerated, — Raymond H. Poxd. 



Chemistry of fertilization. — Loeb's address before the International Zoologi- 

 cal Congresses ;§ of general physiological interest. Summarizing all the experi- 

 ments on artificial parthenogenesis, he says: 



It seems that the essential feature of the process of fertilization consists first in 

 a liquefaction or hydrolysis or both, of fatty compounds, and second, in the starting 

 of processes of oxidation in the right direction. These processes of liquefaction of 

 fats and hydrolysis and oxidation form apparently the basis of the synthesis of nucleins. 

 It is possible, but far from proved, that among the fatty compounds involved in the 

 process of hydrolysis are the lecithins. 



These results are in harmony with the facts observed in the germination of oily 

 seeds. The process of germination is an analogue to the starting of the development 

 in the animal egg, inasmuch as resting cells are thrown into the process of cell divi- 

 sion and this process is based upon the synthesis of nucleins Ithink the chemis- 

 try of the germination of seeds is essentially the chemistry of nuclein synthesis, and 

 I believe the method of starting this synthesis is essentially the same as in the fertili- 

 zation of the egg I am of the opinion that this mechanism of nuclein synthesis 



is the thread by which we can find a rational way through the maze of the otherwise 

 bewildering mechanisms, characteristic of living matter; on one hand, the phenomena 



of growth, on the other, those of self-preservation We must therefore conclude 



that the nuclei themselves or one of their constituents are the catalyzer for the nuclein 

 synthesis or one phase of it. It is possible that the nucleus catalyses only the phe- 

 nomena of oxidation, and inasmuch as oxidations are the conditio sine qua nan of 

 nuclein synthesis, this would explain the autocatalytic effect of the nuclei upon this 

 reaction. 



It will be difficult to harmonize with this theory the germination of rice seed 



AKAHAsm, germinate in the absence of ox}^gen, and 



anaerobic growth of young shoots, described by Nabokich. — C. R. B. 



^5 Science N. S. 26:425-437. 1907. 



