258 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE.—1913. 
The foregoing data, scanty and imperfect as they are, indicate 3 
general relation between plant-vitality and voltage of blaze-current. 
But our principal object has been to indicate in detail the systematic 
lines along which further observations are required from which— 
multiplied a hundredfold—it can become legitimate to infer in given 
instances how much the blaze-current actually varies with varying 
degrees of plant-activity and (?) plant-health under given conditions. 
The Structure and Function of the Mammalian Heart.—Report 
of the Committee, consisting of Professor FRANCIS GOTCH 
(Chairman) and Professor STANLEY Kent (Secretary), 
appointed to make further researches thereon. 
Tue investigation forms a portion of work which has been in 
progress for some years. 
The particular problem attacked this year has been the question :— 
‘Is the conducting path between auricle and ventricle in the 
mammalian heart single, or is it multiple?’ 
The problem has been attacked both from the histological and from 
the experimental side. 
The histological results have shown the existence of an alternative 
anatomical path, whilst the experimental findings are most easily 
explained on the supposition that this alternative path becomes 
functional under certain conditions. 
The results are of interest theoretically, and also from the point of 
view of the clinician, who has found it impossible to explain—on the 
supposition of a single path—conditions which occur not infrequently 
in cases of cardiac disease. 
Some of the results are being published in the Proceedings of 
the Royal Society, but more work is necessary before the full details 
can be available. For this further work a new grant is being sought. 
Colour Vision and Colour Blindness.—Report of the Committee, 
consisting of Professor KE. H. Staruine (Chairman), Dr. F. W. 
EDRIDGE-GREEN (Secretary), Professor LEONARD HILL, Pro- 
fessor A. W. PortsER, and Professor A. D. WALLER. (Drawn 
up by the Secretary.) 
A CONSIDERABLE amount of work in colour vision has been done by 
individual members of the Committee. The inadequacy of the wool 
test even with additional colours as an efficient test for colour blindness 
is now established. On April 1 of this year the Board of Trade 
adopted a lantern test for colour blindness in addition to the wool test. 
The total number of men examined by the Board in colour vision from 
April 1 to May 31 was 1,689, and of these 105, or 6°22 per cent., 
failed. Of the 105 failures, 55 failed in both the wool test and lantern 
test, and 50 in the lantern only. None failed in the wool test only. 
