412 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII J. No. 456. 



of Indian corn. This paper is remarkable in 

 that no mention is made of the previous work 

 of Heald* upon this plant, although the work 

 of Kahlenberg and True, suggesting Heald's 

 work, and published at the same time, in the 

 same journal,! is freely quoted. This omis- 

 sion is the more remarkable since the author's 

 results, when working with acids, are widely 

 difPerent from those obtained by Heald. The 

 undersigned, in collaboration with Mr. J. F. 

 Breazeale, had occasion last winter to repeat 

 the work of Heald, working to closer limits 

 than that investigator had found desirable. It 

 may be worth while to state the results of these 

 three investigations as to the limit of dilution 

 for various acids with seedlings of corn. 



Cameron and 



Loew. Heald. Breazeale. 



Hydrochloric acid..n/512 n/3,200 n/3,000. 



Sulphuric acid n/512 n/3,200 ii/3,000. 



Nitric acid n/3,200 n/2,250. 



Hydrobromic acid. . n/3,200 



Acetic acid n/400 J n/850. 



Malic acid n/1,250. 



Oxalic acid n/1,750. 



Succinic acid n/600. 



Just what is meant by ' toxic limit ' seems 

 to be somewhat indefinite judging from the 

 printed descriptions of the work of this kind, 

 but in the three investigations under consider- 

 ation the same methods of work and the same, 

 or very similar, criteria have been used, and 

 the comparison seems to be fair. The con- 

 firmation of the results of Heald by those ob- 

 tained in my own laboratory makes those of 

 Loew the more inexplicable. 



The author expresses astonishment that the 

 limits for maize should vary so widely from 

 that found for Lupinus alius by Kahlenberg 

 and True. The work in my own laboratory, 

 as well as that of Heald, has shown that very 

 much greater differences exist when other 

 plants are involved, and that a priori pred- 

 ications upon this point are at present im- 

 possible. 



* Bot. Gazette, 22, 125 (1896). 



tBot. Gazette, 22, 81 (1896). 



I So stated in Heald's tabulation, but from the 

 description of bis experiments it seems probable 

 that this is a typographical slip, and should be 

 n/800. 



He also seems to have difficulty in under- 

 standing the relative action of kations in the 

 presence of more toxic anions. The litera- 

 ture of this subject is now fairly large, as 

 witness the work of Loeb in Chicago, 

 Coupin in France, not to mention a number 

 of other investigators, and this particular 

 point has been specifically discussed in con- 

 nection with agricultural plants by Kearney 

 and myself,* and more recently by True and 

 Gies,t although no reference is made to any 

 of these investigations in the paper under 

 discussion. It may be well to state here that 

 the work done in my laboratory, which I have 

 already communicated to the American Chem- 

 ical Society at its meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, 

 June 30, 1903, will be described shortly from 

 a technical point of view in the Journal of 

 Physical Chemistry, and its value for and 

 bearing upon certain important agricultural 

 questions will be fully discussed in an early 

 publication from the Department of Agricul- 

 ture. F. K. Cajieron. 



XJ. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils, 

 Washington, D. C, September 7, 1903. 



SHORTER ARTICLES. 

 PRIMITIVE FLAGEOLETS. 



There is a kind of primitive flageolet made 

 by the western tribes of North American In- 

 dians as follows : A section of cane is open at 

 both ends, but has a joint between the ends; 

 the septum of this joint closes the tube. Two 

 holes from three sixteenths to one fourth of an 

 inch in diameter are made from the outside 

 into the cavity, close to and on opposite sides of 

 the septum. A shallow air channel is cut in the 

 outside of the cane from one hole to the other, 

 and three, four or six finger holes are made in 

 the cane in the part below the septum. The 

 Eees and Shoshones make a septum of wax. 

 When so constructed and nothing further 

 added the ' mystery flute,' described by early 

 writers, is completed when the upper of the 

 two holes at the septum and the air channel 

 are covered by a finger. Blowing through the 

 cane from the upper end produces a sound 

 whose pitch is changed by the finger holes. 



* Report 71, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture (1902) 

 f Torrey Botanical Cluh, 30, 390 (1903). 



