600 
parently, it was in these internodal chambers 
that the plants stored away what might be des- 
ignated their reserve water supply. This ob- 
servation has acquired new significance in the 
light of the statement made by Atkins that 
trees store away a supply of water as well as 
sugar in winter in the dead portions of the 
woody trunk and that these materials are 
drawn upon in the early spring for the new 
growth. 
Interesting as this comparison may be in 
itself, the observation made on the dahlia, to- 
gether with the peculiar stem structure of this 
plant, suggested the possible use of the inter- 
node with one of the nodes as an osmosis cell 
where the semipermeable membrane is a live 
tissue. Hence, J have been wanting to use it 
as such ever since, but failed to carry out the 
idea until this morning (October 8, 1918). 
Having cut down a stem, such a chamber or 
cell was easily prepared, a dilute salt solution 
introduced into the cell, the latter capped with 
a rubber stopper through which a tube was 
passed down into the cell, and the whole placed 
into a beaker with distilled water. It did not 
last long until the salt solution was seen to 
rise in the tube and at the end of possibly an 
hour it had risen fully six inches. Before 
another hour the salt solution had risen to the 
top of the tube. 
A number of possibilities for further ex- 
perimentation at once suggested themselves, 
but before going any farther, I thought it ad- 
visable to show the experiment to Professor 
Overton, our plant physiologist. He informed 
me that, so far as he knew, the experiment was 
a new one and asked for permission to show it 
to his class in place of the conventional thistle 
tube experiment. He called in two other mem- 
bers of the botany department who happened 
to be passing by. To them also the experiment 
was new. 
Whether I shall be in a position to continue 
the line of investigation that suggests itself, 
especially during these times so hostile to re- 
search, I have my doubts. Nevertheless the 
_ mere possibility of studying osmotic problems, 
even greatly limited in range, with a living os- 
motie cell of such convenience as the dahlia 
SCIENCE 
[N. S. Von. XLVIIT. No, 1250 
internode and node, is stimulating in itself. 
It will involve not only chemical problems but 
a careful anatomical study of the tissues as 
well. Because of the great amount of reserve 
materials stored away in the roots, it ought to 
be an easy matter to raise this osmotic cell- 
producing plant in greenhouse for winter ex- 
perimentation. 
Epwarp KREMERS 
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 
QUOTATIONS 
FRANCE’S SHARE IN BIOLOGY AND MEDICAL 
SCIENCE 
A coursE of three lectures on France’s share 
in the progress of science has been delivered at 
University College, London, by M. Henri L. 
Joly, professeur des sciences physiques et natu- 
relles au: Lycée Francais. In the concluding 
lecture, on November 5, he dealt with biology 
and the medical sciences, but owing to the wide 
range of the subject, covering the achievements 
of at least three centuries, he professed that he 
could do little more than recite a list of names 
of greater or less distinction. After references 
to de Tournefort, Duhamel de Morceau, and 
Buffon, whom he regarded as a man of letters 
rather than an exact naturalist, he said that 
the founder of modern biology in France was 
Lamarck, who first sought in natural sciences 
for something beyond description and classifi- 
cation. Xavier Bichat was a pioneer in his- 
tology and did much valuable work on the 
cellular theory. Cuvier was declared to be the 
greatest of French comparative anatomists, 
and other naturalists mentioned were Gaudry, 
one of the early evolutionists; Van Tieghem, 
to whom very Frenchman studying botany ac- 
knowledged a debt; J. H. Fabre, who had done 
more than any man to popularize natural his- 
tory in France; Armand Sabatier, the com- 
parative anatomist, and Lecoq, who, the lec- 
turer contended, had anticipated Mendel by 
twenty years. Turning to Frenchmen whose 
work had been more particularly in the sphere 
of medical sciences, after mentioning Monde- 
ville and Guy de Chauliaec, M. Joly passed on 
to the seventeenth century, noting the work 
of Pecquet on the thoracie duct, of Paris on 
