76 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 
nutrient materials, from organisms immersed in distilled 
water. 
Holding each of these views there has been a for- 
midable array of scientists at different periods, each 
group contending strongly to establish the correctness 
of its view-point. Among those holding the first view 
may be mentioned Boehm and Deherain. 
The second view was associated with the theory of 
“oligodynamik” action of copper and other toxic sub- 
stances which were found to be present in distilled water 
in minute traces and which produced effects simulating 
toxicity on the organisms placed in the medium. Kol- 
liker, Nasse, Nageli, Aschoff, Loew, Locke, Ringer, Cope- 
land and Kahlenberg, Deherain and Demoussy, Lyon, 
Bokorny and Hoyt were among those who gave attention 
to this phase of the problem at different times. 
; Because of finding by electrical conductivity mea- 
surements and otherwise that salts are extracted from 
organisms placed in distilled water, Plateau, Ringer and 
his school, Loeb, Koeppe, Oldham, Peters, True and 
others were led to believe that injury to organisms in 
distilled water found its best explanation on the basis 
of the extraction of necessary nutrient salts. 
The results which the writer obtained in this phase 
of work led him to a somewhat different conception in 
regard to this subject. This conception is that pure 
distilled water is not harmful per se, but that because 
of the static condition forced upon them as a consequence 
of the absence of plant food, the growing cells become 
easy prey to bacterial and fungous action. Excretion 
of electrolytes does occur but this should be regarded 
merely as a concomitant condition and should not be 
considered as a cause of degeneration unless the electro- 
lytes themselves be toxic. 
2. METHODS. 
Canada field peas (Pisum sativum) and horse beans 
(Vicia faba), the small variety, were selected for this 
work because of their splendid adaptability for growth 
in solution cultures. After thoroly sterilizing the seeds 
they were germinated on galvanized iron “hardware 
cloth” which was placed over a pan full of tap water into 
