SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



141 



indigo, and he essayed for it Hie formula C' s ir'\'()\ 

 which, however, he admitted was not conclusive. 



In L850 Morot published the results of the mosi 

 searching and extensive researches yet undertaken 

 on this subject. He contested the likeness of chloro- 

 phyll tn indigo, and held that its composition 

 entirely connects it with the vegetable bases, such 

 as alkaloids, etc. He especially emphasised the 

 fact that the development of the green matter is 

 brought about by the intervention of nitrogen, 

 apparently under the form of ammonia. Accord- 

 ing to him the formula of mallow chlorophyll is 

 C l8 H lu N0 3 — i.e. 3 equiv. starch + 2 equiv. ammonia 

 = 2 eq. chlorophyll + 1(! eq. H 2 + 8 eq. ; hence 

 he opined that it is not becuuse they are green that 

 plants disengage oxygen, but because they become 

 green. 



During the latter half of the century the 

 investigators of chlorophyll have been extremely 

 numerous and of various talent, but I need not 

 recite anything further as regards their names or 

 their often clashing and multifarious views. Suffice 

 it to say that up till to-day the solution of the 

 question as to the precise chemical nature, constitu- 

 tion, and origin of this marvellous pigment has 

 not been attained. As Berzelius said : "the entire 

 leaves of a large tree do not contain ten grams of 

 chlorophyll, and the quantity therein is not 

 greater than the colouring matter contained in 

 dyed cotton." 



2. The Nature of Life. 



No narrower or more disastrous mistake could 

 be made than to confine discussions upon the nature 

 and condit ons of life to that alone exhibited by- 

 animal organisms. The vital phenomena of plants 

 are eminently self-assertive, and leave a trail 

 behind so clear and unmistakable that they cannot 

 possibly be ignored. The fundamental question is, 

 as it always has been, does life depend on organisa- 

 tion, or organisation on life 1 What may be called 

 the " journalistic" school of investigators seems to 

 si nut the distinction herein involved. Headed by 

 old Treviramrs they suggest that action is not an 

 attribute of the organism, but is of its essence — 

 that if, on the one hand, protoplasm is the basis of 

 life, life is the basis of protoplasm ; their relations 

 to each other are reciprocal. We think of the 

 visible structure only in connection with the in- 

 visible process. That is to say, the school jumbles 

 up the whole phenomena into a scrt of pantheistic 

 unity. The fact that John Hunter expressly taught 

 that organisation depends on life should make us 

 pause and be careful. For instance, as regards 

 the preservation and perpetuation of plants, do 

 cells exist which bear the imprint of the plan of 

 their general organisation and arc as the directors 

 of the physico-chemical and mechanical forces 

 which act in living beings'? "At the present 

 time," says Professor Gautier, "science cannot 

 completely answer this question." If it lie asserted 



with unconquerable assurance that the function 

 depends on the organs, or (more specifically) on 

 the aggregation of cells which compose them.no 

 objection can be offered so far as purely physical 



observati sxfcends. When, however, it i> held 



that in these cells the transformations which main- 

 tain life are derived in threat measure from the 

 chemical constitution of the immediate principles 

 which enter into conflict therein, and are of the 

 nature of those which we can produce in our 

 laboratories, all that can be said is that " at the 

 present moment science is not quite certain about 

 it." The causes which maintain life are pretty 

 well known to all of us who have attained a certain 

 age, but what life is in itself is a mystery in- 

 scrutable and profound. 



It is all very well to define life as " the state of 

 functioning of those aggregates which, borrowing 

 all their energy from the external w-orld, make it? 

 owing to their definite organisation, concur towards 

 a common end." It may be quite true to say that 

 " living organisms function by virtue of an energy 

 which comes to them entirely from the outside " ; 

 but, after all, the functioning is not the life, any 

 more than is the structure of a chemical molecule. 

 In my humble opinion the essential characteristic 

 of life is the primordial, the fundamental, the 

 utterly absolute, constant, and irrefragable quality 

 and attributes of the albuminoid matter, or what- 

 ever else it is, wherein it is immanent or irnplantejl, 

 only to be entered therein and be dissolved there- 

 from under conditions w 7 hich man can never cer- 

 tainly know. 



3. The Chemistry of a Leaf. 



The wonder of wonders in the scientific world 

 has been to me for many years the crass ignorance 

 and the stupid indifference, of field naturaMsts and 

 closet " students" alike, as regards the application 

 of chemistry to botanical science. One might 

 imagine, or rather one might unhesitatingly 7 con- 

 clude, that anybody possessed of the faintest trace 

 of scientific intelligence, or of one iota of scientific 

 taste, would inevitably be led at an early period of 

 his studies, either in the field or closet, to investigate 

 by chemical methods the constituents that make 

 up one of the most beautiful and fascinating of all 

 creations. " The plant is," as has been Paid, " and 

 will remain through all time the chemist's ideal." 



At this moment I am looking over a copy of 

 the Sessional Report of the Imperial Academy of 

 Sciences of Vienna (Band 57) of the year 1868, 

 wherein I find a paper entitled (Anglire) " On 

 Some Constituents of Fru.ri mix Excelsior," by Dr. 

 Willi, Gintl, of the University of Prague. It con- 

 cerns a chemical examination of the leaves of the 

 common ash-tree, and 1 will endeavour to convey 

 to the reader the methods and results thereof. The 

 leaves were gat here. I. lie says, at 1 he end of Spring. 



and were extracted with a sufficient quantity of 

 boiling-hot distilled water. The infusion after 



