174 The Meeting of the British Association. 
morning, was tried, and was generally voted a success. A perfectly 
free afternoon gives a welcome respite from the rather tiring business 
of listening to miscellaneous papers. 
The Papers. 
We propose to notice only a few of the more important papers 
that were read. 
The President’s Address dealt mainly with important present- 
day problems of plant-physiology, particularly metabolic problems. 
The mechanism of carbon assimilation, the question of the possi¬ 
bility of the monoxide replacing the dioxide in the process, the 
various stages in the subsequent synthesis of sugars and of proteids, 
were all touched upon, as well as the relation of the alcohols to 
protoplasm and the interesting question of the physiological 
independence of the endosperm of seeds, as shewn by the renewed 
metabolic activity of its cells apart from the influence of ferments 
excreted by the embryo. Electrical phenomena in plant-tissues 
were also dealt with, and the suggestion made that they may be of 
much greater importance in relation to various metabolic processes 
than has hitherto been supposed. 
Professor J. C. Bose gave an attractive demonstration of his 
experiments on the electrical response of plant-tissues to mechanical 
stimulation. By means of a galvanometer connected with the two 
ends of a piece of tissue and reflecting a spot of light on to a screen 
the audience was able to follow the results of the experiments with 
ease. Professor Bose’s general results show a striking similarity 
with similar phenomena in animal nerves. 
Dr. Allan Macfadyen read an interesting account of researches 
by himself and Mr. Sydney Rowland on the Suspension of Life at 
Low Temperatures. Various bacteria were exposed to the 
temperature of liquid hydrogen (about 252 "C.) for ten hours, and to 
the temperature of liquid air for six months, and in no case was 
any impairment of vitality obtained. The authors point out that 
intra-cellular metabolism must cease entirely at such temperatures 
and call attention to the difficulty of forming a conception of the 
actual state in which living matter exists in this condition, which is 
neither life nor death. In the discussion which followed, Dr. Morris 
Travers suggested from the analogy of the behaviour of certain 
chemical substances, that a slow cooling through intermediate 
temperatures might result in the death of the protoplasm. 
Dr. H. H. Dixon gave an account of some experiments on the 
Resistance of Seeds to High Temperatures. He found that seeds 
