758 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1064 



two alternatives in tlie last sentence of Dr. 

 True is correct. The writer defined physio- 

 logically balanced salt solutions as solutions 

 in which the toxic effects are annihilated, 

 which each or certain constituents would have 

 if they were alone in solution. Thus the fer- 

 tilized egg of Fundulus develops naturally in 

 sea water, is killed in a pure NaCl solution of 

 the concentration in which this salt occurs in 

 sea water, and is kept alive if some CaCl, or 

 ZCl 4- CaCl, is added. Since the egg lives 

 and develops perfectly normally in distilled 

 water the CaCl^ or KCl -]- CaCL are only 

 needed to counteract the directly injurious 

 effects which the NaCl solution produces as 

 soon as its concentration exceeds a certain 

 limit (about m/8) (but not to counteract the 

 injurious effects of distilled water which do 

 not exist in this case). The nature of this in- 

 jurious action of the NaCl solution of a suffi- 

 ciently high concentration is perfectly well 

 known, since it consists in the injury or de- 

 struction of the specific impermeability or 

 semipermeability of the membrane.^ 



The term •physiologically lalanced or pro- 

 tective salt solution was intended to be used 

 in contradistinction to the term nutritive 

 solution. If from a nutritive solution one or 

 the other constituent is omitted (e. g., K or NOj 

 in the case of plants or K or the ion NH. in 

 the case of bacteria) so that a malnutrition or 

 a deficiency disease follows, it can not be 

 stated that the organism suffers from the 

 toxic effects of the salts left in the solution 

 (as in the case of a pure NaOl solution of a 

 sufficiently high concentration) but it suffers 

 because the missing elements are indispensable 

 building stones in the construction of the com- 

 plicated compounds of the organism. The 

 writer is not aware that anybody has proved 

 that NOs or K or PO^ in the nutritive solu- 

 tion of a plant are merely needed to over- 

 come the toxic effects of the rest of the con- 

 stituents of the nutritive solution; while in 

 the case of Fundulus the experiments with 

 distilled water show directly that the egg does 



sPfliiger's AroUv, CVIL, p. 252, 1905; Bio- 

 cTiem. Ztschr., XLVII., p. 127, 1912; Jour. Biol. 

 Chem., XIX., p. 431, 1914. 



not depend for the building up of an embryo 

 upon any of the salts contained in the sea 

 water or any other physiologically balanced 

 solution. 



In the writer's opinion the last sentence in 

 Dr. True's note should read as follows : A defi- 

 ciency of nutritive salts deprives the organ- 

 ism of some of the necessary building stones 

 for the construction of its specific complicated 

 compounds, and this deprivation may result in 

 the formation of inadequate or directly in- 

 jurious compounds, causing the phenomena 

 of malnutrition or of the " deficiency diseases." 

 Jacques Loeb 



The Eockefeller Institute 

 FOB Medical Eeseaech, 

 New York 



the typical case exemplified^ 



I RECEIVED three offers when I came up for 

 my degree; two from institutions in the east 

 and one from a typical state university in the 

 northwest. The opportunities for scholarly 

 work were pictured to be as great by the west- 

 ern university as by the two eastern, and the 

 former offered me considerably more in salary 

 than either of the latter. Everything else 

 being equal, the difference in salary decided 

 the case. I came west, was disillusioned, and 

 now wish that I had chosen differently ; but, by 

 the light that I had to follow, I could not have 

 made a different choice. Therefore, it is with 

 the purpose of casting some new light upon 

 the offers that come from the west that I now 

 write. 



In general, the positions out here seem more 

 attractive than those in the east, because usu- 

 ally the beginning salaries are higher — ^the fact 

 that the maximum salary is much lower is 

 overlooked or disregarded ; and because usually 

 the opportunities for scholarly and research 

 work are represented to be as large. Or, rather, 

 I should say, misrepresented, for all the time 

 that I have had for original work I have taken 

 from my sleep and recreation. 



In the correspondence that I had with the 

 head of my department and with the president 

 of the university in reference to the position, 



1 See the letter by Professor Edward C. Picker- 

 ing, Science, February 19, 1915, p. 288. 



