SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 

 OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 

 FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



Friday, February 17, 1905. 



CONTENTS : 



The Theory of Respiration: Professor Chas. 

 E. Barnes ' 241 



The American Chemical Society and Section 

 C of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science: C. E. Waters, Pro- 

 fessor Charles L. Parsoxs L'52 



Section F — Zoology of the American Associa- 

 tion: Professor C. Judsox Herrick 263 



Scientific Journals and Articles 271 



Societies and Academics: — 



The New York Section of the American 

 Chemical Society: F. H. Pough 271 



Discussion and Correspondence : — 



'Beryllium' and 'Gluciniim': Professor 

 Charles Lathrop Parsons. The English 

 Sparroiv as Emhryological Material: Pro- 

 fessor Albert M. Reese. Deluc versus 

 de Sanssure: Dr. S. F. Emmons 273 



Special Articles: — 



Note on the Variation of the Sizes of Nuclei 

 with the Intensity of the Ionization : Pro- 

 fessor Carl Barus 27o 



Current Notes on Meteorology : — • 



London Fog Inquiry; Mosses, Trees and 

 Points of the Compass; The Monthly 

 Weather Review; Notes: Professor DeC. 

 Ward 276 



Scientific Notes and News 277 



University and Educational Neics 280 



MSS. inteuded for publicatiou aud books, etc., intended 

 for review should be sent to the Editor of Science, Garri- 

 son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 



THE THEORY OF RESPIRATION * 

 I ASK you to consider with me a topic 

 which is of fundamental interest to physi- 

 ologists, whether they concern themselves 

 primarily with animals or with plants. I 

 take it the basal identity of the living mat- 

 ter in all organisms and of its metabolism 

 needs neither demonstration nor emphasis 

 at my hands. Nor do I need to lay stress 

 upon the importance of respiration as one 

 of these metabolic i^henomena, since it has 

 been recognized from the earliest period as 

 indispensable to life. The phlogiston the- 

 ory of the composition of the atmosphere 

 had scarcely disappeared below the scien- 

 tific horizon, before the fact was discovered 

 that there occurs, in animals and in plants 

 alike, an intake of oxygen and an output 

 of carbon dioxide which is intimately re- 

 lated to their existence. This became ob- 

 vious to man, of course, in his own experi- 

 ence, a very superficial study of the com- 

 position of the air inspired and expired 

 from the lungs showing that -it had lost 

 oxygen and gained CO.. This much of 

 respiration was early recognized to occur 

 also with the larger animals, and a few 

 years later like observations Avero made 

 upon plants by Priestley, and more accu- 

 rately by Lavoisier and Ingenhouss. Even 

 this knowledge of respiration Avas not pos- 

 sible before Priestley 's discovery of oxygen 

 in 1774, and the very remarkable revolu- 

 tion in chemistry that followed in the clos- 

 ing years of the eighteenth century. Yet 



* Address of the retiring president before the 

 Botanical Society of America, Phihidelphia, De- 

 cember 28, 1904. Publislieil simultaneously in 

 the Botanical Gazette. 



