1912] PEIRCE—RESPIRATION 107 
disappointment in fine-looking but worthless seed which failed to 
germinate. The Pure Food and Drugs Act has made it necessary 
to take fewer articles which come under its operation on faith or on 
the word of the dealer. But there being no convenient way of 
testing the quality of seeds, they are as unreliable as ever. It is 
highly desirable, therefore, from a practical standpoint, to have a 
method of testing seeds as to their germinating power. Such a 
method must be reasonably accurate and convenient. I believe it 
will be found that Dewar flasks may be adapted to this use, and I 
wish to furnish a certain amount of evidence now in favor of this 
belief, hoping to be able to determine the matter before long. 
Peas retain their germinating power much longer than many 
other seeds, longer than the ordinary grains, for example. They 
are even less suitable, therefore, for experimental investigation of 
this matter than many other seeds. I happen to have in my 
laboratory, however, peas bought in 1908, rg10, and 1911. Each — 
lot must have been of the preceding year’s crop, or older; but 
owing to the large yearly demand for pea seed, probably very little 
old stock of this sort is carried over, and I believe, therefore, that 
the seeds in my laboratory are, most of them at least, of the crops 
of 1907, 1909, and r910. The variety is commercially known as 
“‘American Wonder,” an ‘‘extra early.”” The following table shows 
the behavior of these three crops in Dewar flasks this year, in con- 
Stant temperature room A. The flasks and thermometers were 
sterilized by washing with concentrated aqueous solution of corro- 
sive sublimate, and subsequently rinsed three times with sterile 
distilled water. The peas were weighed, air-dry, in 80 gr. lots 
and put, with 100 cc. boiled distilled water, in each of the flasks to 
be used. The boiled water and the peas, as well as all the parts 
of the apparatus, were kept in the constant temperature room for 
at least 24 hours before an experiment was set up. The water was 
drawn off at the end of the first day. 
To this table I should like to add the figures Pepaeteds in my first 
paper describing the use of Dewar flasks as respiration calorimeters,? 
for these figures were obtained by using the same 1907 crop of peas. 
8’ Prerrer, W., Pflanzenphysiologie 27: p. 327 and the literature there cited. 
® PerrceE, G. J., A new respiration calorimeter. Bor. Gaz. 46:199. 1905. 
