1074 
Kemp.—Note on the Action of 
1 . Sulphuric acid and potassium bichromate, giving a deep violet in the 
presence of strychnine. 
The residue was also examined for crystals and for the intensely bitter 
taste characteristic of strychnine. 
The result of the tests was as follows. The presence of strychnine was 
demonstrated in the stems and leaves of the plants examined, in amounts 
varying very roughly with the strength of the original solution. Thus, while 
only to be detected by bitterness to the taste and by faint, though distinct 
colour reactions, in the plants treated with a solution containing o-oo 5% of 
strychnine, in those which had been subjected to the action of a 0-5 % 
solution the base was obtained in a crystalline form from the ether residue 
and the colour reactions were vivid. 
The absorption of strychnine through the roots of the above plants 
being proved by the appearance of the poison in their stems, a microscopical 
examination was made of the root-tips fixed in parallel to the stem ex¬ 
tractions. The periods of immersion in these transpiration experiments 
having been somewhat prolonged, in order to allow ample time for the rise of 
the poison in the stem, the effect observed microscopically in the roots was 
naturally severe, but the general results were similar to those of the earlier 
experiments with strychnine. In those which had been treated with the 
stronger percentages the nuclei were shrivelled, diffusely stained, and 
apparently dead ; and also in the roots fixed immediately after removal 
from the poison, whether of weaker or stronger percentage, they were seen 
to be in a completely inactive and apparently pathological condition. In 
the roots which had been subjected to the 0*5 % solution no recovery was 
observed, but where weaker solutions had been used (0-05 and 0-005 %) 
there was a gradual return of activity, after the plant had been replaced in 
its culture solution for a few days, the nuclei staining more clearly and 
here and there undergoing mitosis. Such mitoses were to all appearance 
normal and none of the irregular figures described by Hertwig were 
found. 
It seems possible that the difference between the results obtained in 
these experiments with somatic cells, and those obtained by Hertwig with 
eggs, ma y be due to an essential difference in the physiological character 
of the two kinds of tissue. It was noted above that O. and R. Hertwig, in 
working with Echinoderm eggs at three distinct stages of development, 
obtained a characteristic type of response at each stage. Again, it has been 
found that between two kinds of egg—such as those of Asterias and 
Strongylocentrotus —there is a considerable difference of sensitivity to ex¬ 
ternal stimuli; those of the former being more easily excited to partheno- 
genetic division than are the latter. Further, it has been shown that in 
many hybrids, whereas the nuclei of the sexual cells show remarkable 
irregularities in their division figures, those of the somatic tissue are perfectly 
