THE QUESTION OF THE TOXICITY OF DISTILLED WATER 39 1 
the seedlings to a distilled water medium is an important factor. It 
seems probable that injury is due to the greatness of the change. 
It will attempt to show secondly, that the possible injury which might 
arise from toxic substances excreted by the roots while the seedlings 
are growing in the water is another important factor to be considered. 
In lieu of any historical resume, mention is here made of the 
literature and references cited by Livingston,^ Hoyt^ and True.'^ 
These papers give a very complete summary of the history of the 
work done up to date by both animal and plant physiologists. It is 
interesting to note that the work is about evenly divided between 
these two divisions of biology. 
Materials and Methods 
The distilled water used in these experiments was of low con- 
ductivity, 2.5 — 1.4 X io~^. A battery of stills was set up and 
kept in operation all day and on the following days until the required 
amount of water was obtained. Then the experiment was started. 
The waters were stored in clean Jena bottles for no longer than the 
period of experimentation. Each individual still consisted of one 
3-liter Jena glass flask, one condenser with spiral Jena glass inner 
tube, Jena glass tubing for connections where necessary and cotton 
plugs. The water was collected in either 5-liter, ground-glass- 
stoppered Jena bottles, or 3-liter ground-glass-stoppered Jena flasks. 
As indicators, the roots of Lupinus albus were selected. The 
seeds were kindly given me by Dr. True. These were soaked over 
night in either tap water or distilled water and suspended in damp 
chambers so as to form straight roots. No trouble was experienced 
in obtaining straight roots. When of the proper length the roots were 
marked at a point 10 or 15 mm. behind the tip and inserted in the 
loop of paraffined copper hooks. These were never allowed to touch 
the water, and only the radicles were immersed. These hooks were 
then arranged around the rim of Jena beakers of 250 cc. capacity. 
All glassware was previously thoroughly washed, rinsed, soaked in 
sulphuric acid-potassium dichromate solution for a few hours, then 
^ Livingston, B. E. Further Studies on the Properties of Unproductive Soils. 
U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur, Soils Bull. 36: 57, 71. 1907. 
^ Hoyt, W. D. Some Toxic and Antitoxic Effects in Cultures of Spirogyra. 
Bull. Torrey Club 40: 333-360. 1913. 
^ True, R. H. The Harmful Action of Distilled Water. Amer. Journ. Bot. i: 
253-273. 1914. 
