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Pa Se ee ee rere 
SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—K. 361 
4. The rise of the mechanical line of investigation, which is concerned only with 
the becoming of the mechanism, not with its working when in being. 
Probably the whole controversy is rather a matter of point of view than of any 
fundamental difference of opinion. That every organism is essentially a mechanism 
or systems of mechanisms is manifest. There cannot be a mechanism without 
adaptation, nor can there be physiology without the idea of function. 
Prof. Priestley is right in insisting on the mechanical side of the question. We 
want to know both how the mechanism is made and how it works; whether we are 
dealing with a steam-engine or a living plant. The latter question—the working— 
is of more general interest, but the scientific value is equal. 
The physiological study of development is a new departure and has everything 
still to accomplish. But we also need to make a fresh start with the investigation 
of function, as is shown, for example, by the doubt recently cast on supposed xerophytic 
adaptations. Few will be content with the solution ‘ there is no function,’ an assump- 
tion as facile and perhaps as futile as some of the hypothetical functions imagined 
by too confident Darwinians of a past period. 
(d) Mr. G. EK. Briees. 
(e) General Discussion. 
AFTERNOON. 
16. Rev. Prof. M. C. Porrer.—Temperature Relations in Wound Reactions. 
Richards investigated the thermal reactions which occur at a wound immediately 
after it has been made. He detected a rise of "44°C. Stocklasa reinvestigated this 
problem and found that if the surface of the plant was sterilised before the wound 
was made no rise of temperature ensued, and that the rise of temperature noted was 
due to bacterial action. 
At a recently wounded surface there would be :— 
1. A decrease of temperature due to (a) the exposure of moist cells and the con- 
sequent cooling by evaporation and (b) energy being rendered potential in the block- 
ing substance, assuming that its formation is an endothermic reaction. 
2. An increase of temperature due (a) to accelerated respiration and (b) to bacterial 
action. 
The suggestion is made that in the healing of wounded tissues the rise of tem- 
perature due to increased respiration is more than counterbalanced by the loss of 
heat under (1), and normally a fall of temperature and not a rise would thus take 
place. Any rise of temperature such as has been noted would be due to extraneous 
circumstances such as bacterial action. 
17. Dr. J. Larrer.—The Pollen Development of Lathyrus odoratus. 
A special study of the nucleolus of the pollen mother-cells has revealed the presence 
of certain nucleolar inclusions which may have an important bearing on the function 
of this structure. Throughout the early prophase stages, the thickening spireme is 
attached to a dark-staining body in the nucleolus. This association strongly suggests 
transference of chromatin from the nucleolus to the thread. In the ‘ brochonema ’ 
stage, evidence is found for a possible physical basis of ‘ crossing over’ in a form in 
which the method of chromosome pairing is essentially telosynaptic, and in which the 
phenomenon of ‘ crossing over’ is well known genetically. The heterotypic spindle 
appears to be of intranuclear origin. Pollen-tetrad wall formation is brought about 
by furrowing, the pollen mother-cell being surrounded by a special thickened wall, 
the nature of which is not known. 
18. Mr. T. J. Jenxin. — The Artificial Production of Inter-Generic 
Hybrids in Grasses. 
The paper is mainly concerned with the following crosses :— 
1. Lolium perenne with Festuca rubra. 
2. Loliwm perenne with Festuca elatior var. arundinacea. 
3. Lolium perenne with Festuca elatior var. pratensis. 
F, progeny have been obtained in each of these. 
