NOTES. 
A N ATTEMPT TO ESTIMATE THE VITALITY OP SEEDS 
BY AH ELECTRICAL METHOD. By Augustus D. Waller. 
M.D., F.R.S. — The present observations form part of an extensive 
series of experiments, by which I am engaged in verifying whether 
or no ‘ blaze currents ' may be utilized as a sign and measure of 
vitality. 
An inquiry of this scope necessitates superficial examination of 
many varieties of animal and vegetable matter, and the closer study 
of certain favourable test-cases. 
I have selected as such a test-case the ‘ vitality ’ of seeds, and have 
chosen for my purpose beans (. Phaseolus ), which are anatomically con- 
venient and practically easy to obtain of known age. 
But before entering upon the results in this particular test-case, 
I think it advisable to preface those results by a brief indication of the 
principle involved in all such experiments. 
By ‘ blaze current ’ (the term which I was led to adopt by the study 
of retinal effects) I mean to denote the galvanometrical token of an 
explosive change locally excited in living matter. An unequivocal 
blaze current electrically excited is in the same direction as the 
exciting current, i.e. it cannot be a polarization counter-current. 
(An equivocal blaze current, in the contrary direction to the exciting 
current, i.e. not at first sight distinguishable from a polarization 
counter-effect, also exists, but is not taken into consideration in this 
communication.) 
The presence of an unequivocal or homodrome blaze current is in 
my experience proof positive that the object under examination is 
1 Abridged from the paper in Proc. Roy. Soc., vol. Ixviii, p. 79, 1901. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XV. No. LVIII. June, 1901.] 
