1910] CURRENT LITERATURE 317 
the following headings: dug wells, bored wells, drilled wells, driven wells, springs, 
rivers, surface reservoirs, and cisterns. Some of the general eceanaose 2 ie as 
follows: Both farm and city are suffering from the careless rural 
sanitation. Exhaustive data upon 79 carefully selected and fenecaehipline rural 
water supplies show that 20 were good and 59 polluted, usually because of careless 
or ignorant management. Some of the polluted wells are so located that even 
extreme care would not make them safe, but a large majority of them could be 
made safe. The rivers, surface reservoirs, and cisterns are all polluted, and it is 
doubtful whether satisfactory supplies can be secured for farm use from such 
sources, except by disinfection. During the investigation 23 of the farms examined 
showed a record of typhoid fever. It is stated that ‘‘the protection of farm sup- 
plies by common-sense methods, obvious to anyone who will try to discover the 
dangers incident to his own water supply, would render safe the majority of the 
farm supplies which are now polluted.”—J. M. 
Ferments of resting seeds.— Miss WuiITE?4 has shown that the enzymes pres- 
ent in seeds of wheat, maize, barley, oats, and rye retain their activity long after 
the power of germination of the seeds has disappeared. Diastatic and proteolytic 
enzymes were shown to be present in wheat after twenty years of storage, and in 
oats, rye, and barley after eight to ten years of storage, although the seeds had lost 
their power of germinating. The enzymes persisted apparently unaffected by 
the long period of storage. The resistance of the enzymes to heat was also tested. 
In a moist condition all the enzymes are destroyed at 100°, but in a dry state they 
can resist higher temperatures. Pepsin was oe in one hour at 124°, erepsin 
in one hour at 124°-128°, and diastase at 124°-1 31.° Both as to duration of time 
and effects of heat the enzymes are more persistent than the Leta of germination, 
showing that failure to germinate ily correlated with loss of enzymes. 
In the final part of the paper the respiratory activity of resting seeds is taken up. 
Many air-dried seeds give off appreciable quantities of carbon dioxid, but others 
show no respiration. When seeds are moderately desiccated at 45° all respiration 
ceases.—H. HASSELBRING. 
Position of chloroplasts.—SENN’s continued investigations?’ on some details 
of the position of chloroplasts offer opportunity to call attention to his inde- 
pendently published work,?° which was not received by the GazettE. In 
his last contribution, after alluding to certain adverse criticisms on his former 
results, he reports investigations on the winter position of the chloroplasts in the 
Palate cells of winter-green foliage. He concludes that the heaping up of the 
*4 WuiTE, Miss JEAN, The ferments and latent life of resting seeds. Proc. Roy. 
Soc. B 81: 417-442. 1909. 
25 SENN, G., Weitere Peeriarap ie iiber die Gestalts- und neta 
der anes Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesells. 2'7:(12)-(27). I 
Die Gestalts- und Lageverinderung der Ree Ca 
scan Wilhelm qacaues 1908. 
