1 32 
Walter Stiles 
Fitting are very high, it is to be expected that the position of equi¬ 
librium will be attained when the absorption ratio has reached a 
position considerably below unity. 
Trondle considered his results as indicating that there was a rapid 
intake of salt during the first io minutes of experiment, during which 
time the intake of salt was proportional to the time of action and 
independent of the concentration, after which the rate of intake 
gradually lessened according to a logarithmic relation. That Tron die’s 
method is capable of giving such accurate data I very much doubt 
for reasons already stated. Trondle’s theoretical conclusions from 
these results are somewhat surprising; they will be mentioned on a 
later page. 
Hofler (1918 b, 1919) investigated the absorption of potassium 
nitrate by cells of Tradescantia elongata and Rhoeo discolor by means 
of the plasmometric method described in the last chapter. This method, 
it will be recalled, attempts to measure the intake of salts by in¬ 
dividual cells. Hofler found extraordinarily wide variations in the 
rate of absorption of the salt by different cells of the same tissue. 
Thus in a section of parenchymatous tissue of Tradescantia elongata 
the quantity of salt absorbed by individual cells in the same time 
varied between 0-009 gm. mol. and 0-043 gm. mol. with a mean 
value of 0-022 gm. mol. Moreover, the quantity of salt apparently 
absorbed by the same cell may undergo as wide variations with time. 
These changes in rate of intake appear quite independent of the 
abnormally high rate of intake which is an indication of the death 
of the cell. A general decrease in the rate of intake as observed by 
Fitting was not observed by Hofler until the lapse of about a day 
or longer from the first immersion of the tissue in the solution. 
The course of absorption of the two ions of a number of salts 
by whole plants of a considerable number of different species was 
investigated by Pantanelli (1918) by analysing the external solutions 
for both ions. He came to the conclusion that the two ions are 
absorbed independently throughout the whole course of absorption. 
The rate of absorption varied greatly with different ions and different 
salts, and ions that were absorbed most rapidly by one species were 
not necessarily absorbed with any great rapidity by another species. 
Generally speaking, other factors being equal, unicellular organisms 
or those rich in protoplasm, absorb ions much more rapidly than 
multicellular organisms or those poor in protoplasm. 
Pantanelli found that in some cases oscillations occurred in the 
total quantity of ion taken in by certain of the plants he examined, 
