On the Physiological Action of Neutral Sodium 

 Sulphite upon Phsenogams. 



BY 



K. Negami. 



While neutral sulphites are poisonous to the higher animals, 

 they prove to be either not so, or only very week poisons, for the 

 lowest forms of animal and vegetable life/" In regard to phce- 

 nogams, however, the action of neutral sulphites does not appear 

 to have been investigated, though the action of free sulphurous 

 acid on plants has repeatedly been studied. 



The reason why I undertook some trials regarding this 

 matter was that amido-sulphonic acid in the form of neutral 

 salts was found to be poisonous to the phrenogams,^"' while it is 

 not poisonous to lower vegetable and animal life. This rendered 

 the supposition possible that the specific action for pha^nogams 

 miglit be due to the formation of sulphurous acid from that 

 compound. 



In my first experiment I prepared a i% solution of neutral 

 sodium sulphite-^' and mixei.1 it with an equal volume of saturated 



(1) O. Z(7tW, Natiirl System der Giftwirkungcn, p. 105. 



(2) O. Loe-oj. Journal of the College of Science, Tokyo, Vol. IX, 1896. Also: 

 N. Mai. no, Bull. College of Agric. Tokyo, Vol. II, No. 7. 



(3) This salt was freshly recrystallized to free it entirely from sulphates. 



