296 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 999 



in importance, the primary cause of injury being 

 tlie extraction of electrolytes and perhaps of 

 other substances as well. This extraction by dis- 

 tilled water is regarded as but a special case of 

 the general type of injury wrought on cells by un- 

 balanced solutions whereby certain necessary con- 

 stituents, undoubtedly in part inorganic, are dis- 

 sociated from their proper attachments in the 

 complicated chemical and physical mechanism of 

 the living cell. The distilled water seems to with- 

 draw material required for the maintenance of 

 the efficient action of the protoplasmic limiting 

 membranes, with the result that the permeability 

 of the cells is increased, and a further dissociation 

 of electrolytes from their points of combination 

 in the proteids, and other chemical structures of 

 the cell, ensues. These dissociated electrolytes es- 

 cape from the cell and increase the conductivity 

 of the distilled water. When a trace of calcium 

 ions is present in the distilled water, this dissoci- 

 ating power of the distilled water over the pro- 

 teids and other chemical mechanisms of the cells is 

 largely developed, and the chemical integrity of 

 the cells is protected in some way not known. 



This report is preliminary in its nature and is 

 to be followed at a future date by a further con- 

 tribution reporting the results of work now under 

 way. 

 Distilled Water in the Laboratory : E. H. Teue. 



With the discovery made by Nageli and Loew 

 that copper distilling apparatus may yield water 

 containing traces of copper sufficient to render 

 the water harmful for plant cultures, the use of 

 glass distUling apparatus became general, and 

 carefully distilled water obtained from glass came 

 to receive the general confidence of biologists. 

 While in the majority of cases this confidence is 

 well placed, errors in the interpretation of results 

 are likely to follow a failure to recognize and al- 

 low for certain chemical and physiological char- 

 acteristics of so-called pure water. Aside from 

 the difficulty of obtaining pure water, this sub- 

 stance having been prepared in a pure state but 

 a few times and then by chemists and physicists, 

 there is the further difficulty of maintaining it in 

 a pure state, since it readily becomes charged with 

 gaseous products of the air, and when exposed to 

 the air of the laboratory is especially likely to as- 

 sume harmful properties for plant cultures — a 

 danger which may be minimized through taking 

 precaution to exclude these impurities from con- 

 tact with the water. Another source of almost 

 unavoidable contamination is seen in the solubil- 



ity of the usual glass containers, which, unless 

 specially prepared for the purpose, give up to the 

 water sufficient solids to steadily increase the elec- 

 trical conductivity. 



Since a minimum of impurities will be found 

 even in the purest water obtainable for practical 

 experimental purposes, the action of the dilute 

 solution which goes under the name of distilled 

 water comes up for consideration. It has been 

 shown that "distilled water" is injurious to the 

 roots of certain plants, and that this action is 

 paralleled by, and probably due,, in great measure, 

 to, the leaching of constituents necessary to the 

 maintenance of life activities. 



When check cultures grown in distilled water 

 are used as a standard of comparison and regarded 

 as normal, great danger of serious error in inter- 

 preting the results of biological experiments 

 arises, since the behavior of check cultures in dis- 

 tilled water can not safely be regarded as an ex- 

 pression of normal activity. 



It appears that plant physiologists need in their 

 work a normal physiological solution, this normal 

 solution to be such a medium as will cause the 

 least possible disturbance to the usual activities of 

 the plant. While the difficulties introduced by the 

 use of a normal physiological solution are many, 

 and will necessitate great care not only in meet- 

 ing different requirements of various types of 

 plants, but also with respect to the purity of 

 chemicals used, the insolubility of glassware, the 

 quality of distilled water employed, etc., there 

 seems to be little doubt that such physiologically 

 approximate mixtures are likely to give results 

 much more closely approaching physiological 

 soundness than is possible with the use of distUled 

 water. 



George T. Mooee 



Secretary 



JOINT ANNUAL MEETING OF AMEBICAN 

 ANTHROFOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION 

 AND AMEBICAN FOLK-LOBE 

 SOCIETY 

 The annual meeting of the American Anthropo- 

 logical Association was held in West Assembly 

 Hall, American Museum of Natural History, New 

 York City, December 29-31, 1913, in affiliation 

 with the American Folk-Lore Society. The joint 

 program was unusually long and more cosmopoli- 

 tan than at any previous meeting, and the sessions 

 were well attended. The thanks of the members 

 of both societies are due to the American Museum 



