CXVlll PKOCEEDINGS. 



and connecting the distribution of electrolyte with surface 

 tension gave an explanation of muscle contraction and the 

 associated nerve impulse. He also showed that a concentra- 

 tion of electrolyte, or ions, at one point in the living cell would 

 explain why is was that cellular membranes acted differently 

 in the organism from the way in which they act as dead 

 membranes in the laboratory during osmotic experiments. 



Last year Czapek published results on higher plant cells, 

 which have a bearing on secretion and excretion. He found 

 that these cells did not part with their soluble constituents 

 in osmosis until the surrounding media had its tension lowered 

 to .65 (water air surface-1). Red blood corpuscles and yeast 

 cells did not give up haemoglobins and invertase respectively 

 until the surface tension was reduced to .5. 



One line of biological research that is going on at the pre- 

 sent time, one on which much time and money has been spent, 

 and the research which appeals most to the world at large, is 

 the endeavor to find the cause and cure of cancer. The cell 

 of abnormal growth presents a difficult biological problem. 

 Here is a cell which breaks away from the mechanism controll- 

 ing growth, and starts on a career of its own, like a semi- 

 independent organism. Proliferating with increased rapidity 

 it departs from its type also in division, showing varying ab- 

 normality in karyokinesis. After the physical chemistry of 

 the normal cell is known, the abnormal cell will still present 

 itself. Two new and important methods of technique have 

 recently been announced which may aid in the solution of the 

 problem. One is Dr Carrel's method of tissue growing in 

 vitro, and the other is the method of intra vitam staining 

 as shown by Prof. Goldmann before the Royal Society last 

 year. 



Let us hope the cure will be discovered long before the 

 biochemist arrives at the scientific explanation of the cell of 

 abnormal growth. 



