JANUARY 19, 1912] 
down to us,”* and that “even his autographs 
are exceedingly rare.” 
It is of interest, therefore, that another let- 
ter in the hand of Lamarck has been discov- 
ered in Paris (it is now in my possession), 
and as it contains several data regarding his 
life, it may be worthy of publication. It reads 
as follows: 
Paris ce 16 floréal au 5 de la Rep. 
Lamarck professeur au Museum d’hist. naturelle 
Au Citoyen Cyalis Lavaux Directeure de la 
1er® division des domaines 
Citoyen 
ayant recu de Songeons, département de 1’oise, 
l’avis que la vente des biens que j’ai Soumissionés 
etoit Suspendue et qu’on avoit méconnue 1’au- 
torité du Ministre des finances, j’au et 1’honneur 
de vous faire passer une lettre par laquelle je me 
Suis plaint de la Conduite du département 4 cet 
egard. j’apprends en ce moment que la personne 
qui m’a fait passer cet avis m’a trompé, et que 
le département de 1’oise n’a encore pris aucun 
arreté qui me fut prejudiciable. je me hate de 
vous en instruire pour vous prier de ne donner 
aucune Suite 4 la lettre que j’ai et 1’honneur de 
vous faire passer. 
quand le Ministre de 1’interieur aura fait passer 
a Son Collegue le Ministre des finances les Condi- 
tions de la vente de ma Collection, je me recom- 
mande 4 votre bienveillance que vous avez deja 
bien voulu me promettre, et pour laquelle je vous 
prie d’agréer ma vive reconnaissance et mes Salu- 
tations fraternelles. 
LAMARCK 
Tt will be seen from the above details that 
Lamarck, like many members of his class, was 
troubled in matters of property during the up- 
heaval of the revolution. He had maintained 
his post, poor as it was, in the Jardin des 
Plantes in 1790, and had made a strong plea 
for a reorganization of this institution under 
the republican régime: he had even (1793) 
gained the day and during the most democratic 
‘epoch, he was distinguished as one of the first 
professors placed in charge of the collections 
of the Jardin des Plantes. The present letter 
shows, none the less, that in 1794 Lamarck 
was concerned about his property at Songeons. 
1‘<Tamarck le Fondateur du Transformism,’’ 
1909, p. 105. 
SCIENCE 
111 
The authorities had not, however, as he later 
ascertained, confiscated it, and ordered its sale. 
Still, times were bad and he was probably in 
financial straits, since he took the opportunity 
in the same letter to refer to the matter of the 
sale of his (private) collection, and to “ pull 
a wire” more or less insistently. 
BasHrorD DEAN 
SPECIAL ARTICLES 
APPARENT ANTAGONISM BETWEEN 
LYTES AND NONCONDUCTORS 
1. In a publication contained in Scrnce, 
Vol. XXXIV., No. 887, pp. 928, Sumner 
makes the following statement: “ Loeb’s as- 
sertion that ‘salts alone have such antagon- 
istic effects’ certainly does not apply to adult 
fishes. I need only eall attention to the fact 
that cane-sugar solutions of certain strengths 
were found by me to very clearly defer the 
fatal action of the copper salts, both upon 
Fundulus heteroclitus and upon certain 
fresh-water species.” 
Thirteen years ago I pointed out the funda- 
mental difference between the influence of 
electrolytes and nonelectrolytes upon life 
phenomena and in later publications called 
attention to the fact that this difference indi- 
cated an interaction between the electrolytes 
and colloids, especially the proteins, of the 
cells, which did not exist between nonelectro- 
lytes and the same colloids of the cells. The 
further development of colloid chemistry and 
biology has shown that this conclusion was 
correct and fruitful. The fact that the toxic 
action of electrolytes upon the cells can be 
antagonized by electrolytes only is a special 
ease of this more general rule. In 1902 Gies 
and I published an apparent exception to this 
rule, namely, that the toxic action of ZnSO, 
upon Fundulus eggs could be inhibited 
through the addition of cane-sugar; but we 
pointed out that in this ease there is no an- 
tagonistie action between ZnSO, and cane- 
sugar in regard to the colloids of the egg (or 
membrane) but a chemical reaction between 
ZnSO, and cane-sugar which leads to the 
formation of zinc saccharate, and conse- 
quently to a diminution of the Zn ions in solu- 
THE ELECTRO- 
