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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXI. No 529 



the commemoration of the dead; but the fact that ihe "cove," or 

 holy of holies, in the centre of the northern circle, faced the sun 

 when rising at midsummer has been regarded as indicatiiii; sun- 

 worship to have been the chief purpose of this vast monument, 

 which was in all respects so suitable for a place of assembly for a 

 tribe or nation. 



A short distance to the north of the main road from Marl- 

 borough to Abury are the remains of a dolmen called the " Devil's 

 Den,"' and there is another at Rockwell, four miles northwest 

 from Marlborough and two miles northeast from Abury. There 

 was also a circle at Winterboiu-ne Basset, four miles north from 

 Abury, but it is not worth the trouble of a visit, as only three or 

 four stones remain. 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS FROM MISSOURI 

 BOTANICAL GARDEN. I. 



BY J. CBRISTIAN BAT, MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN, ST. LOUIS, MO. 

 THE PLAiJT CELL. 



In the early part of this year. Professor von Sachs, of Wuerc- 

 burg, published a paper on the theory of cells : Beitraege zur Zel- 

 lentheorie in "Flora," 1899, Heft 1, pp. 57-64. The leading 

 thought of this publication seems to me to form, when combined 

 with the following suggestions, the key and basis for deductions 

 from the very long and interesting series of facts which forms 

 the results of investigations of the later years in the functions of 

 vegetable cells, both mechanical and physiological. 



It is not difficult to trace how, even since the epoch of natural 

 philosophy ("die Naturphilosophie "), the science of vegetable 

 physiology has been in want of a solid foundation, a base, upon 

 which the results of investigations in the phenomena of the life 

 of vegetable cells could be firmly built. In the Botanisehe Zeitung 

 a lance was in vain broken for the old theory ; somebody then 

 in vain put out the question, what Schleiden would give us instead 

 of the old natural philosophy. Schleiden made no answer, 

 because he had none to give. 



The physiology of the plant cell having had since that time no 

 leading exponent is, I suppose, the reason why at present that 

 science merely consists of a series of very interesting, suggestive 

 facts, but without the necessary conjunction with regard to points 

 of view leading to general results. 



A great many prominent men have devoted their lives to the 

 study of vegetable cells, and we must allow that botany has now 

 progressed as far as zoology, but only with regard to the accumu- 

 lation of facts, in animal biology the cellular physiology of Vir- 

 chow, dating from 1858, has arrived at a very high stage of 

 development. Therefore, when thinking of the construction of a 

 comparative physiology of animals and plants, it will be a most 

 thankworthy task to collect all of the thrown facts concerning 

 the physiology (qua biology) of the plant cell and arrange them 

 from a general point of view. 



The reason why the botanical part of cellulair science has not 

 brought forth general results during this long period is also to be 

 sought ia the definition of the cell body in botany. "Very few 

 physiologists would allow that the plant cell as well as the ani- 

 mal cell is an organism. Still this definition is to be looked at as 

 a necessary foundation for a clear perception of the phenomena 

 of botanical cellular physiology, both mechanical and chemical. 

 As far back as 1848, one of the most prominent physiologists, N. 

 Pringsheim (De forma et incremento stratorum crassiorum in 

 plantarum cellula observationes quaedam novae. Halae, 1848, 

 p. 38.) reminded us that "cellula est individuum," Hilger and 

 Husemann, Weiss, and A. Zimmermann have told us almost the 

 same, butstill we find such definitions as " Grundorgan " (Fi-ank), 

 "Elementargebilde," "Formelemente " (G. Haberlandt). In his 

 excellent "Lectures," "Vines calls the plant cell "the physical 

 basis of life." It must be remembered that Huxley ("Physical 

 Basis of Life ") only spoke of the protoplasm as the bearer of 

 life. And Huxley himself, when he gave this mos't ingenious 

 definition, did not see in protoplasm the physiological basis of 

 life. Life never rested on a physical basis, nor consisted in phy- 

 sical matters alone. 



Nobody will doubt whether a yeast cell is an organism or not. 



Professor R. Pedersen, of Copenhagen, for six years my teacher 

 in physiology, first mentioned these facts to me in the winter uf 

 1891, acknowledging the results of this consideration for the evo- 

 lution of cell theory in botany. Never this explanation was said 

 with regard to the fact that said definition suVjsequently would 

 form the key to cellular jjhysiology in botany and, I may add, to 

 comparative physiology of animals and plants. 



The question is of considerable importance, because the accumu- 

 lated facts now need a basis. The proposition of Sachs in his re- 

 cent paper must be said to have come in due time. Yet it evi- 

 dently ought to be connected with the given definition of the 

 cell. Now we shall be able to arrange the facts in a system, see 

 where vacant spaces may be, and fill up the voids, but up to the 

 present time we were unable to do so. 



Taking the " energids " as a basis of vegetable life, Sachs found 

 " a real unity as a basis for the plant body," when we allow an 

 energid to be " one nucleus with that protoplasm which sur- 

 rounds it and which is commanded by the same nucleus." Then, 

 looking forward, we shall see as one of the necessary results 

 that the cell, often containing more than one nucleus, is really 

 an organism, never an organ. Even without this deduction we 

 may acknowledge the cell as an organism, because it acts as an 

 organism. 



Mechanics not being life, life is not mechanics; physiology 

 alone is the science of the functions of life. Therefore, to under- 

 stand the latter we must find a good physiological foundation 

 for it. 



By this explanation I hope to have been able to show that in- 

 vestigations in the life of the plant cell ought to be brought into 

 another trace in the future. More than ufual plant physiologists 

 must be aware that they want— as Sachs says — " a scientitic 

 language, according to the true scientific idea." 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*** Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The zoriter's name 

 is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



On request in advance, one hundred copies of the number containing his 

 communication will be furnished free to any correspondent. 



The editor loill be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character 

 of the journal. 



An Alleged Mongoloid Race in Europe. 



Although it is not usual, and often impracticable, for writers 

 to reply directly to the various criticisms passed upon their books, 

 yet, as an interested reader of Science, I may perhaps be allovsed 

 to say some words with regard to a review of my " Testimony of 

 Tradition," contributed to your issue of Feb. 10 (p. 82), which I 

 have not had an opportunity of seeing until today. This I desiie 

 to do in order to remove more than one misapprehension of my 

 meaning in the work reviewed. 



" The very slender basis for the whole theory," says the re- 

 viewer, "is the syllable Fin.'' In this he is greatly mistaken. 

 Linguistic comparisons in this direction are certainly made, and 

 considerable stress laid upon them, but these are entirely sub- 

 sidiary to the important statements quoted in the first chapter. 

 Briefly, these are to this effect: Wallace, a clergyman in Orkney 

 during the second half of the seventeenth century, states that 

 "Finn-men" were at that time occasionally seen off the coasts of 

 Orkney, each "Finn-man"' being the solitary occupant of a small 

 skiff. In particular, he specifies the years 1682 and 1684, and 

 another writer (Brand), who confirms his account, gives instances 

 in or about the years 1700 and 1701. Their skin-boats, and the 

 dress and usages of the people themselves, as described by these 

 writers, identify them at once with Eskimoes, i.e., an Eskimo-like 

 race. Of this there can be no reasonable doubt. Both writers 

 state that one of their skin-boats was then preserved " as a rarity " 

 in the Hall of the Edinburgh College of Physicians, and it is 

 added that another specimen was preserved in the parish church 

 of Burray, Orkney. The former statement is confirmed by an 

 entry of the year 1698 in the minute-book of the Edinburgh Col- 

 lege of Physicians, which I copied from the original writing and 

 published in my book (p. 10). The writer first quoted (Wallace) 



