Marcu 8, 1912] 
water of imbibition enters these membranes from 
within, then the surfaces must begin to dry. This 
phenomenon, which may be termed incipient dry- 
ing, actually occurs in leaves which are subjected 
to relatively high transpiration. It acts as an 
automatic check upon transpiration. These consid- 
erations are important in the study of the water 
relations of plants; they also seem to bear upon 
the physies and chemistry of the formation of 
cuticle, ete. 
M. McCoou: The Toxic and Antagonistic Rela- 
tions of Manganese. 
JOINT PROGRAM OF THE BIOLOGICAL SECTION OF THE 
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY AND THE AMER- 
ICAN SOCIETY OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTS 
THoMAS B. OSBORNE and L. B. MENDEL: Main- 
tenance and Growth. 
WILDER D. BANcRoFT: The Study of Environment. 
When studying the effect of environment on an 
organism, we must distinguish three distinct 
things: the direct effect of new external conditions 
involving no adaptation; the adaptation of the 
organism to the new conditions; and the possible 
inheritance of the adaptations. The botanists have 
not made these distinctions. They consider the 
change of curvature of tendrils with change of 
temperature as a case of non-adaptive response, 
whereas it has no more to do with adaptation than 
the shortening of a fishing-line when it is wetted. 
The problem of the inheritance of acquired 
characters has been complicated unnecessarily by 
the arbitrary limitation that the character must be 
inherited for four or five generations after the 
organism has been brought back to the original 
surroundings. Since an organism which responds 
readily to a new environment will also revert 
readily when brought back, this definition has 
probably excluded most of the cases in which the 
inheritance of acquired characters could be shown. 
The biologists seem never to have realized that 
inheritance is primarily a hysteresis phenomenon 
and should be studied as such. 
TREAT B. JOHNSON: The Synthesis of Thiotyrosine. 
A knowledge of this new amino acid was espe- 
cially desirable, in order to acquire a more definite 
conception of the true nature of sulphur combina- 
tions in proteins. The acid has been prepared by 
the application of a new, general method for the 
synthesis of alpha amino acids and its chemical 
properties are now being studied. 
The most important characteristic of the acid, 
so far observed, is the fact that it does not give 
SCIENCE 
395 
Millon’s test. On the other hand, it gives, on 
warming the concentrated sulphuric acid, as char- 
acteristic color reaction, as the Milton’s test is 
characteristic for tyrosine. This study is one of 
a projected series on new sulphur combinations 
which has been planned for the Sheffield Labo- 
ratory. 
ALFRED DACHNOWSEI: The Relation of Vegetation 
to the Chemical Nature of Peat Soils. 
C. L. ALSBERG and O. F. BLack: Phytochemical 
Studies on Hydrocyanic Acid. 
J. H. Lone: The Definition of Normal Urine. 
Our notions as to what is a normal urine have 
undergone many changes in the years which have 
elapsed since the first attempts were made to 
establish standards. 
The same individual, at one time on a high 
protein diet and again on a low protein diet will 
excrete urine which will be markedly different in 
many ways, and yet both will be normal. 
Improved methods of examination have shown 
that hyaline casts are much more frequently pres- 
ent in the urine of healthy men than was suspected 
a few years ago, and it must be admitted that 
traces of albumin occur in the urine of men who, 
from all ordinary points of view, are perfectly 
well. 
The statement as to what constitutes normal 
urine must take cognizance of these facts, and of 
the further fact that for each individual there 
seem to be agencies at work which modify the 
nitrogen distribution, the acidity and the natural 
sulfur in ways which we can not account for. In 
a certain sense each individual has his own 
standard of normality. 
ANDREW HUNTER and Maurice H. Givens: The 
Nitrogen Excretion of the Monkey, with Special 
Reference to the Metabolism of Purines. 
A female monkey (Cercopithecus caltitrichus), 
weighing 4.7 kilograms, was maintained for 40 
days on a daily ration of 200 c.c. whole milk, 200 
grams bananas and 20 grams peanuts. The urine 
was collected every 48 hours. For the first 16 
days the average daily excretion of N was 1.83 
grams, distributed as follows: urea, 1.59; NH,, 
0.028; creatinine, 0.065; allantoin, 0.015; purines, 
0.0027; undetermined, 0.13 gram N: or, urea 
86.9: NH,, 1.5; creatinine, 3.5; allantoin, 0.82; 
purines, 0.15; undetermined 7.1 per cent. of the 
total N. Urie acid could not be detected. 
During the remainder of the experiment atten- 
tion was devoted particularly to the metabolism 
of endogenous and exogenous purines. On seven 
