* 336 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [NOVEMBER 
edition furnishes distressing mistranslations. When the Frenchidiom ze .. . 
que is translated as a flat negative, the author is made to say the exact reverse 
of what he means, and the rest of the paragraph becomes absurd. The French 
use of the article has been carried over literally, even where it fits the English 
idiom! Again, where the author says, for example, a fluid may reach a certain 
ee the faithful translator puts it, is able to reach. ‘‘ Matiéres hydro- 
”? becomes ‘“‘hydrocarbon materials,” in heavy-faced type; and the 
aah discusses sugar, cellulose, and glycogen! Perhaps the consistent 
reference to WAGER as WAGNER in the text is an error of proofreading, for 
the name is correct in the bibliography and in the French text. The American 
book is very well printed, with large, open, legible type, but no one can safely 
use it without having a copy of the original at hand, or at least without having 
enough knowledge of French to read the original author’s meaning between 
the lines. —H. S. CoNARD. 
NOTES POR STUDENTS 
Electrons in photosynthesis.—An attempt has been made by Drxon and 
Poot’ to interpret photosynthesis in terms of the electronic theory. On the 
basis of photo-electric phenomena in sensitizers of photographic films, and the 
absorption spectra of chlorophyll, they believe that the first action of light is to 
disturb electrons in the chlorophyll molecule. Experiments were made to de- 
termine whether the electrons were actually ejected by the incident radiation, or 
whether the disturbances were too weak to do more than displace the electrons 
within groups of atoms, or from molecule to molecule of chlorophyll. 
By delicate electrometer measurements they were able to establish the 
occurrence of a slight photo-electric effect in chlorophyll under illumination, 
but this effect is apparently produced by ultra violet radiations, not by those of 
visible frequencies and synthetic activity, for they find that the effect is mag- 
nified about 2000 times by use of a light rich in ultra violet rays. Quantitative 
use of the data showed that possibly 75 electrons per square centimeter per 
second might be ejected from a layer of chlorophyll by light from a 500 watt 
lamp. In terms of energy, this effect is utterly negligible, for the actual syn- 
thesis of food in plants goes on at a rate which would require about nine trillion 
times as much energy as these ejected electrons could supply. It is necessary to 
electronic bombardment. If this be true, then the synthetic reactions must 
concern the chlorophyll molecule itself, and the electrons are merely shifted 
from atom to atom, or molecule to molecule, as in ordinary chemical reactions. 
These shiftings, of course, will alter linkages, and change the chemical character 
of atomic groups, probably rendering inactive groups of atoms reactive. Such 
‘3 Drxon, Henry H., and Poorer, Horace H., Photosynthesis and the electronic 
theory. Sci. Proc. Roy. Dublin Soc. 16:63-77. 1920 
