20 



The meshAvork or more solid part of the jelly is in a perpetual 

 state of alteration by hydration and dehydration. WTien we 

 attach to a living cell-mass a delicate apparatus by which its 

 quiverings are recorded, as has been done by the Indian mystic 

 Bose, we get results comparable to those which could be procured 

 b}^ registering the vibrations of the walls and floors of a crowded 

 tenement house. Accentuated activity would be noted after 

 sunrise, lulls and minor disturbances recorded during the day, 

 and a subsidence before midnight. These facts would offer but 

 a fantastic basis for any interpretation of the working capacity, 

 qualities, or the nature of the activities of the living human units 

 of the building. Similar studies of the quiverings of the proto- 

 plasmic jelly structure have been made b}^ this Indian mystic 

 the basis of fanciful and sentimental interpretations of the 

 action of living matter, which have attained a great vogue, es- 

 pecially among naturalists who have not surA'eyed the ground- 

 work of physiological action. The comparison here given is both 

 apt and accurate, and the results in question spell but little 

 progress in the solution of any serious physiological problem. 



After discussion, adjournment followed. 



Secretary. 



NEWS ITEMS 



Dr. John K. Small, head curator of the museums and herbari- 

 um of the New York Botanical Garden, returned on January lo 

 from a month's visit to southern Florida. 



At the annual meeting of the Board of Managers of the New 

 York Botanical Garden, held on January 8th, Dr. Frederic S. 

 Lee was elected President, succeeding Dr. W. Gilman Thompson, 

 who had served in that ciapacity since the death of Hon. Addison 

 Brown in 191 3. 



Dr. A. B. Stout, director of the laboratories of the New York 

 Botanical Garden, is spending the scholastic year at Pomona 

 College, Claremont, California, where he is giving occasional 

 lectures on problems of plant-breeding and conducting investi- 

 gations on sterility and fertility in different varieties of oranges 

 with reference to crop production. 



