140 



SCIENCi: 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 839 



the plant to enable one to prove whether 

 or not assimilation actually takes place. 

 It was found that the Spirogyra immersed 

 in a solution of either of these substances 

 under certain conditions continue to grow 

 and produce starch in the absence of car- 

 bon dioxide. These results must be re- 

 garded as strong corroborative evidence in 

 favor of the view that plants have the 

 power of directly assimilating formalde- 

 hyde; they are not conclusive, however, 

 since there is no actual proof that the com- 

 pounds are decomposed by the plants pre- 

 vious to assimilation. 



Later Bouillac and Giustiniana^^ suc- 

 ceeded in growing ordinary white mustard 

 in solutions containing traces of formalde- 

 hyde. It is interesting to note that a cer- 

 tain amount of light was necessary, how- 

 ever, for the growth of the plant. 



Treboux^^ also reports that he has suc- 

 cessfully grown the Elodea in solutions of 

 one part of formaldehyde in one hundred 

 thousand, but that no starch was formed; 

 hence he concludes that his results are op- 

 posed to the general belief that formalde- 

 hyde is directly polymerized to carbohy- 

 drates. 



Usher and Priestley** in the investiga- 

 tions referred to above likewise report a 

 case of starch formation in a solution con- 

 taining one part of formaldehyde in one 

 hundred thousand. 



In 1908 Bokorny*^ reported some experi- 

 ments in which he succeeded in proving 

 that spirogyra can assimilate such sub- 

 stances as glycerol, sucrose and even traces 

 of formaldehyde itself when present in 

 dilute solutions. A year later*^ he again 

 reported some experiments in which he at- 

 tempted to grow water cress under a bell 



'^ Compt. rend., 136, p. 1155. 



«" Flora," 92, p. 73. 



'*Proc. Royal Soc, B, 77, p. 370. 



'^ Arch. ges. Physiol. (Pflugers) , 125, p. 467. 



"Arch. ges. Physiol. (Pflugers), 128, p. 565. 



jar over a 30 per cent, solution of sodium 

 hydroxide containing small amounts of 

 formaldehyde and concludes that the up- 

 per portions of the plant undoubtedly 

 absorb aldehyde vapor. This assimilation 

 can take place in the absence of both oxy- 

 gen and light. 



Likewise Grafe and Vieser*^ have grown 

 seedlings of Phaseolus vulgaris in air free 

 from carbon dioxide but containing for- 

 maldehyde and report that plants under 

 such conditions grow more rapidly than in 

 normal air. 



So far as I know, no attempts have been 

 made to ascertain the effect of glycolalde- 

 hyde and glycerose upon the growth of the 

 plant. It is probable that these com- 

 pounds are intermediate products in the 

 formation of a sugar by the polymeriza- 

 tion of formaldehyde. One would nat- 

 urally expect therefore that they would be 

 assimilated by the growing plant. More- 

 over, they would be better adapted than 

 formaldehyde for such investigations, since 

 they are relatively less toxic, and hence 

 could be used in larger amounts. 



SYNTHETIC PEODUCTION OP SUGAR PROM 

 PORMALDEHYDE 



It will be recalled that Butlerow's 

 methylenitan was synthesized not from 

 formaldehyde itself but from a closely re- 

 lated compound, trioxymethylene. Loew*' 

 in 1886 was the first to build up a sugar 

 directly from formaldehyde, using mild 

 alkalis as condensing agents. Three years 

 later Loew*° succeeded in obtaining a purer 

 product (formose) by using the oxides of 

 lead and magnesium as condensing agents. 

 In the meanwhile Fischer^" was carrying 

 out those brilliant researches in which the 



"Ber. d. hot. Gesell., 27, p. 431. 



"J. praU. Chem., 33, p. 321. 



"Ber. d. chem. Gesell., 22, p. 475. 



■» Ber. d. chem. Gesell., 20, pp. 1093, 2566, 3384. 



