SCIENCE 



Friday, Novembee 17, 1911 



CONTENTS 

 The Sole of Salts in the Preservation of Life : 

 Pkofessok Jacques Loeb 653 



Popular Misconceptions concerning Precocity 

 in Children : Professoe M. V. O 'Shea . . . 666 



The Washington Meeting of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science 674 



Scientific Notes and News 678 



University and Educational News 681 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



A New Toy Motor: Dr. George F. Becker. 

 A Common Error concerning Cecidia: De. 

 Mel T. Cook. The Air-hladder of Clupeoid 

 Fishes: C. Tate Eeagan. Transference of 

 the Term "Genotype" : Db. F. A. Bather 683 



Scientific BooTcs: — • 



Steinmetz's Engineering Mathematics: Pro- 

 tessoe a. p. Wills. Timmerding's Geom- 

 etric der Krdfte: Peopessoe E. E. Hedeick. 

 Toch on Material for Permanent Painting: 

 Peofessor a. H. Gill 685 



Notes on Meteorology and Climatology : A. H. 

 Palmee 687 



Special Articles: — 



The Life-history of a Parasitic Nematode — 



— Babronema musccs : B. H. Kansom 690 



Societies and Academies: — 



The American Mathematical Society: Peo- 

 FESSOE P. N. Cole. The American Philo- 



Society 692 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 leview should be sent to the Editor of Science, GarrlBon-on- 

 Hadson, N. Y, 



THE SOLE OF SALTS IN THE PSESESVA- 

 TION OF LIFE^ 



Less is known of the role of the salts in 

 the animal body than of the role of the 

 three other main food-stufifs, namely, carbo- 

 hydrates, fats and proteins. As far as the 

 latter are concerned, we know at least that 

 through oxidation they are capable of 

 furnishing heat and other forms of energy. 

 The neutral salts, however, are not oxi- 

 dizable. Yet it seems to be a fact that no 

 animal can live on an ash-free diet for any 

 length of time, although no one can say 

 why this should be so. We have a point of 

 attack for the investigation of the role of 

 the salts in the fact that the cells of our 

 body live longest in a liquid which con- 

 tains the three salts, NaCl, KCl and CaCls 

 in a definite proportion, namely, 100 mole- 

 cules NaCl, 2.2 molecules KCl and 1.5 

 molecules of CaCL. This proportion is 

 identical with the proportion in which 

 these salts are contained in sea-water; but 

 the concentration of the three salts is not 

 the same in both cases. It is about three 

 times as high in the sea-water as in our 

 blood serum. 



Biologists have long been aware of the 

 fact that the ocean has an incomparably 

 richer fauna than fresh-water lakes or 

 streams and it is often assumed that life on 

 our planet originated in the ocean. The 

 fact that the salts of Na, Ca and K exist 

 in the same proportion in our blood serum 

 as in the ocean has led some authors to the 

 conclusion that our ancestors were marine 



^ Carpenter lecture delivered at the Academy of 

 Medicine of New York, October 19, 1911. 



