60 SCIENCE 
cell surfaces may have electromotor properties 
similar in certain respects to those of metallic 
surfaces has long been familiar to physiol- 
ogists; and the so-called “membrane theory” 
(or theories) of the bioelectrie potentials, 
which originated in a suggestion of Ostwald 
in 1890 and has been developed in considerable 
detail by Bernstein, Héber and others, has 
referred the physiological variations of poten- 
tial to variations of permeability or to other 
changes in the plasma-membrane. It seems 
best, however, to avoid for the present too 
special conceptions of the precise nature of 
the processes concerned in these phenomena 
and to regard the latter from a broader and 
more generalized point of view. Variations 
of phase-boundary potentials, with associated 
or dependent chemical effects, appear to con- 
stitute the general type of phenomenon in- 
volved. More recently the work of Haber, 
Beutner and especially of Loeb and Beutner 
in collaboration, has demonstrated many fun- 
damental resemblances between such poten- 
tials and the bioelectric potentials, and is of 
the highest interest in relation to this general 
problem. The work of Loeb and Beutner, to- 
gether with that of Macdonald, indicates that 
organic membranes and cell-surfaces behave 
as if reversible (in the electrochemical sense) 
to cations as a class; in this respect they re- 
semble the surfaces of solutions of lipoids in 
organic solvents; and it seems probable that 
the demarcation-current potentials are thus to 
be explained. I am inclined, however, in view 
of the conditions in passive iron as well as 
for more purely biological reasons, to re- 
gard the local bioelectrie circuits accompany- 
ing normal cell activity as representing pri- 
marily some type of oxidation reduction ele- 
ment. In general the physiological effects ob- 
served at the respective regions where the elec- 
tric current enters and leaves the cell-surface 
are opposite in character, and the same must 
be true of the underlying chemical or metab- 
olic processes. Oxidation at one area, simul- 
taneously with reduction at another area— 
these chemical changes involving synthesis as 
well as decomposition—seems to be a more 
probable source of the normal currents of 
[N. S. Vou. XLVIII. No. 1229 
action, especially when the dependence of vital 
phenomena on oxidation and synthesis and the 
interdependence of the two latter processes are 
considered. Further discussion of the possible 
relations between the bioelectric processes and 
cell-metabolism, with a fuller account of the 
facts described in this article, must be re- 
served for a more complete paper. 
Rauee S. Lite 
CLARK UNIVERSITY 
THE INTER-ALLIED SCIENTIFIC FOOD 
COMMISSION? 
THE Inter-Allied Scientific Food Commis- 
sion now sitting in London has already at 
previous meetings accomplished a good deal 
of work, and if its recommendations are ¢ar- 
ried out, the provisioning of allied countries 
will be placed on a sound scientific basis. 
That its recommendations will be carried out 
seems to be more or less guaranteed by the 
fact that it was established as a result of a 
decision of the Inter-Allied Conference held 
in Paris last November. The Conference di- 
rected that the inter-allied scientific commis- 
sion should consist of representatives of 
France (Professors Gley and Langlois), Italy 
(Professors Botazzi and Pagliani), United 
States (Professors Chittenden and Lusk), and 
the United Kingdom (Professors E. H. Star- 
ling and T. B. Wood). It was instructed to 
meet periodically in order to consider from a 
scientific point of view the food problems of 
the Allies and in agreement with the inter- 
allied executives to make proposals to the allied 
Governments. The commission held its first 
meeting in Paris on March 25, and its second 
in Rome on April 29. Before its present 
meeting in London a representative of Bel- 
gium, Professor Hulot, was added. A memo- 
randum upon the work of the commission, 
furnished to us by the food controller, con- 
tains some particulars enlarging the informa- 
tion published in previous issues. 
At its first meeting last March in Paris the 
commission came to an agreement as to the 
minimum food requirements of the average 
man. It was laid down that for a man weigh- 
1 From the British Medical Journal. 
