1918] REED—WHEAT SEEDLINGS 375 
posed by OsTERHOUT,? which holds that the slow penetration of 
salts may produce effects on the cell quite different from those 
produced by rapid penetration, and that their action is on the life 
processes rather than on the manner or rate of penetration. “From 
this point of view we regard the slow penetration of salts in bal- 
anced solutions not as the cause but as the result of antagonism, 
or rather we may regard the slow penetration and the increased 
length of life (or growth, etc.), by which we measure antagonism, 
as the results of certain life processes which are directly acted on 
by the antagonistic substances.”’ 
OsTERHOUT found that the theory was satisfactorily supported 
when the penetration of certain known mixtures of NaCl and CaCl, 
into living cells was studied. He makes, however, a seeming 
exception in the case of solutions of lower concentration, stating: 
“Below the saturation point’ the relative proportions of the salts 
will be of less importance than their total concentration; this is the 
case at low concentrations in the region of the so-called ‘nutritive 
effects.’”’ 
SHIVE and TorrincHaM, on the other hand, not to mention 
others, have rather definitely shown that there are certain dis- 
tinctly favorable ratios in nutrient solutions of equivalent con- 
centration. 
In view of OsteRHouT’s rather sweeping exclusion of nutrient 
solutions of low concentration, it seemed profitable to the writer 
to investigate the effect of some of OsTERHOUT’S proportions in 
weak solutions, coupled with analyses of the plants to determine 
the amounts of solute taken up. It is a pleasure to acknowledge 
my indebtedness to Mr. J. F. BREAZEALE for the cultures and 
analyses upon which this work is based. 
The experiments to be reported were conducted on wheat seed- 
lings grown on disks of perforated aluminum buoyed by glass bulbs 
? OsTERHOUT, W. J. V., ne: penetration of balanced solutions and the theory of 
antagonism. Science, N.S. 16. 
A dyanshical cn, ofantagonism. Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc. 55:533. 1916. 
3 The term “saturation point” as used is taken to mean the point at which the 
surface of a plasmatic structure is saturated with the antagonizing salts. Beyond 
this point an increase in their concentration in the solution produces no effect on their 
concentration in the surface 
