Fertilizing and Cytolytic Effect of Soap. 



83 



6. The patient remained for four months in a condition of 

 nitrogenous equilibrium, and otherwise in good health, on a diet 

 containing about 6.5 grm. of nitrogen and 3,000 calories, which 

 were ultimately reduced to 2,500 calories to prevent a constant 

 gain in weight. 



38 (376) 



The formation of gluconic acid by the olive -tubercle organism 

 and the function of oxidation in some microorganisms. 



By CARL L. ALSBERG. 



^J^rom tlic Office of Poisonous Plant Investigation, Bureau of Plant 

 Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture. '\ 



The olive-tubercle organism. Bacterium savastanoi, recently de- 

 scribed by Erwin F. Smith,' when grown in the presence of 

 glucose and an excess of calcium carbonate, converts the 

 greater part of the glucose into calcium gluconate. The amount 

 of energy liberated thereby is exceedingly great in comparison to 

 the weight of the organisms. This is to be explained by the fact 

 that the energy requirements of microorganisms are very much 

 greater than those of higher forms, partly because of the dispro- 

 portion between the body surface and the body volume of micro- 

 organisms, and partly because microorganisms exist in a medium 

 which is an excellent conductor of heat. 



39 (377) 



On the fertilizing and cytolytic effect of soap. 

 By JACQUES LOEB. 



\F'roin the Physiological Laboratory of the University of California.'^ 



It has been shown by experiments on the eggs of sea-urchins, 

 starfish, and annelids that the artificial membrane formation is the 

 act which causes the unfertilized egg to develop. The agencies 

 which cause the artificial membrane formation, as a rule, injure 

 the egg. For the eggs of the starfish and certain other annelids 



' Erwin F. Smith : Recent Studies of the Olive-Tubercle Organism. U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bulletin No. 131, Part IV, Wash- 

 ington, 1908. 



