284 



REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 



sign of life. Without denying as a possibility that the change may 

 take place in slight degree during life, we recognise as the major fact 

 that it does take place when, as shown by the electrical response, the 

 living state has come to an end, and we therefore regard the entire 

 phenomenon not as a manifestation of excitation or intensification of 

 the living state, but as a liberation supervening upon a depression or 

 suppression of the living state. 



The alterations of weight that take place in anassthetised or other- 

 wise poisoned leaves to which attention was drawn at a recent meeting 

 of the Royal Society by H. E. and E. F. Armstrong are quite intelli- 

 gible from this point of view. A normal leaf, in water and in dry air, 



Time in Days. I 



2 3 4 



Fig. 2. — Described in the text. 



gains and loses in weight very little in comparison with the gain or 

 loss of an anassthetised leaf, because in the former the association of 

 water with protoplasm is comparatively firm, whereas in the latter 

 water is more easily absorbed and lost. Figuratively expressed, the 

 dead matter of a chloroformed leaf is more obedient to variations of 

 its surrounding water than is the living matter of a normal leaf. This 

 point is illustrated in fig. 2, giving the weights of two similar leaves, 

 one of which, A, was normal, while the other, B, had been chloroformed, 

 both leaves being subsequently immersed in water and exposed to the 

 air as indicated in the figure. The fluctuations of weight by gain and 

 loss of water were much greater in the chloroformed leaf B than in 

 the normal leaf, A. 



