3. Many famous biologists have abandoned the theories of the natural origin of life, for: A. Huxley was led reluctantly to give up his bioplastic theory. B. Sir William Thomson surrendered his speculation that life germs came to this earth from some planet. C. Herbert Spencer abandoned his theory of D. Tyndall said: 'Proofs that spontaneous II. There is no truth in the law of universal de- no B. Among trees, the oak, birch, hazel, Scotch fir, have shown no improvement in thousands of years. C. The coral insects' which built the first coral reefs in Florida, have shown no improvement in 300 centuries. D. The crustacean family, since its appearance at the close of the carboniferous period, has not changed. E. The molluscs, fishes, reptiles, birds and mammals have never shown the least improvement or elaboration since their appearance. F. Mummies of cats, bulls, ibices, birds, dogs and crocodiles from the tombs of Egypt, have shown no change in 5,000 years; are identical with their living representatives of to-day. G. The Cro-Magnon' skull belonging to the earliest stone age, is not different from the human skulls of to-day. H. A scientist, having examined the statuettes recently discovered in Crete, concludes that the muscles and veins of the forearm of man have not changed in 4,000 years. 2. On the other hand, in scores of instances there is a pronounced deterioration of both parts and functions, for: A. One may observe cases of degeneration in: a. The acidians. b. Many parasitic species. c. The fishes (constant degeneration since the Devonian period). d. All the lower mammals. e. The whole human race. III. There is no such thing as transmutation of species by natural processes, for: 1. The proofs which evolutionists have brought forward in favor of transmutation are in reality, meaningless, for: A. Geological records do not uphold the theory, for: a. In such cases as the supposed phylogeny b. The so-called missing link, pithecan- b'. Professor D. C. Cunningham, of Dub- a. Manifestations of the principle of the biogenetic law furnish no support for the theory, for: a'. This law but shows the 'prophetic element in nature'; i. e., the creator is a prophet and his method is to anticipate by type, pattern or prophecy, what may be expected in his subsequent creations. b. The ease with which present-day scientists can place in its proper class and order any fossil or prehistoric animal, is a sign that species have not changed. c. No one has ever been able to change the structureless germ of one plant or animal into the structureless germ of another. d. Sterility of the offspring of crossed species bars the most available way for the process of transmutation to act. IV. There is no emergence of man from the brute condition, for: 1. Geology, history, archeology, anatomy, philology, ethics and religion demonstrate the fact that the first beings on earth which wore the human form were not brutes nor even barbarians, but were as perfect in brain and as capable in intellect as any people now living, for: A. Geology, archeology and anthropology all concur in the facts that: a. The human race was not existent before the close of the glacial period; i. e., about 15,000 years ago. b. Man was highly civilized 7,000 years ago, and has not materially changed since that time. c. There is left only 8,000 years for the rise of man from the brute condition-a fact which is incredible when we note that man has not changed at all in the last 7,000 years. B. Philological research demonstrates the C. A study of comparative religion shows V. The scholars and scientists are not all evolutionists, for: 1. Dr. N. S. Shaler, of Harvard University, says: It begins to be evident to naturalists that the Darwinian hypothesis is still unverified. Notwithstanding the evidence derived from animals and plants under domestication, it has not been proved that a single species * has been established * * by the operation of natural selection." 2. St. George Mivart, of the University College, Kensington, says of the theory: 'I can not call it anything but a puerile hypothesis.' 3. Dr. Etheridge, of the British Museum, remarks: Nine tenths of the talk of evolutionists is sheer nonsense; it is not founded by observation, and wholly unsupported by fact.' 4. L. S. Beale, of King's College, London, says: 'There is no evidence that a man has descended from, or is or was in any way specially related to, any other organism, in 1This is a misinterpretation of Dr. Shaler's attitude which is decidedly in favor of some evolution hypothesis.—P. B. H. 1. That the advocates of evolution can not prove that life germs arose by natural processes; 2. That evolutionists show an utter inability to prove that there exists a universal law of development and improvement; 3. That they can not prove lower species of plants can be transmuted into higher; 4. That in all excavations not a single connecting link between species has been discovered; 5. That physical and mental science proves it to be impossible for an animal to come into possession of a human soul, human mind or human body; 6. That geologists have silenced the voices of the advocates of the animal descent of man; 7. That all scholarly men and scientists are not evolutionists; 8. That many who once upheld evolution are now abandoning it; There need not be a moment's hesitation in saying that the hypothesis of evolution, with all the other speculations attached to it, has collapsed beyond the hope of restoration. ANATOMICAL LABORATORY, BROWN UNIVERSITY, March 4, 1905. PHIL. B. HADLEY. EFFECT OF SPECIAL ARTICLES. THE CONCENTRATION OF THE NUTRIENT SOLUTION UPON WHEAT CULTURES. THE work here reported was undertaken to determine the concentration of a nutrient solution which is best adapted to the growth of wheat, and further to find out whether or not an increase in concentration alone may accelerate growth aside from changes in the nutrient value of the solution. The nutrient solution used contained calcium sulphate, magnesium phosphate, potassium carbonate, sodium nitrate and ammonium chloride in chemically equivalent amounts. It was made up to concentrations of 10, 70, 150, 745 and 1,545 parts per million, respectively. To each solution 5 parts per million of ferric chloride were added, thus making the concentrations of total salts 15, 75, 155, 750 and 1,550 parts per million. In the two higher concentrations some phosphates and carbonates of calcium and magnesium were precipitated out, but the error thus produced is too small to affect the general results under consideration. A series of cultures of wheat seedlings was grown for 28 days in these solutions, the latter being changed every day. At the end of the period the plants in the solution of 15 parts per million were the poorest of the lot, being remarkably stunted, as though suffering for want of water. Those in the solution of 75 parts per million were considerably better, while those in the solution of 155 parts per million were unmistakably the best. Those in the solution of 750 parts per million were similar to those in the one of 75 parts, while those in the solution of 1,550 parts per million were again very poor and showed the same stunting of growth as do plants growing in alkali soils. This experiment was performed six times with different growing conditions, and each time the results were in the same order. The general development was always in the same relative order as the transpiration.' 1 For evidence in regard to the use of transpiration as a criterion here, see a paper about to appear in the Botanical Gazette, Livingston, B. E., 'Relation of Transpiration to Growth in Wheat.' It will be seen from the table that curves of these transpirations would have maximum points somewhere between 155 and 750 parts per million of total solids in solution. No attempt was made to determine the maximum point more accurately, but by interpolation it is estimated to lie in the vicinity of 300 parts per million of total solids. This may be taken as approximately the concentration best suited to growth under the conditions of these experiments. Whether the depression noticed in the lower concentrations of the above series is due to a scarcity of one or more of the nutritive elements or to the low concentration of the solution as a whole is considered in the following experiments. In experiment VII. to each of four portions of the solution above described, containing 15 parts per million of total salts, were added 140 parts per million of one of the salts occurring in the original solution, a different salt being used in each case. To a fifth portion was added 140 parts per million of a mixture of all four of these salts in chemically equivalent amounts. Twenty-four plants were grown in each of the five solutions for thirteen days, and their growth was compared with that of a similar culture in the original solution. Table II. presents the data for this experiment as well as for the two following ones. Relative transpirations on the basis of 100 for the original nutrient solution of 15 parts per million are given. There was a marked increase in the growth of the plants, with the addition of each one of the salts, but none of them produced as good plants as did the combination of all four salts. In experiment VIII. the same solution of 15 parts per million was increased in concentration by the addition of 60, 140, 735 and 1,535 parts per million of calcium sulphate. Thirty-six seedlings were grown in each solution for thirteen days, comparison being again made with the original solution. The increase in transpiration was also very marked in this case, as is shown by the data in Table II. Here the transpiration figures tend to show a depressing effect in the solution of highest concentration, as in the former case. This experiment was repeated with similar results. that with calcium sulphate just described, and the results showed the same general effect, although the actual differences between the different cultures were not nearly as great. The last fact is probably due to the toxic effect of the chlorine ion, tending to retard growth and thus partially masking the effect of concentration. The data are given in Table II. From the experiments thus far described it is evident that there is an optimum physical concentration of the nutrient solution at which water cultures of wheat thrive best, aside from variations in the amounts present of the different nutrient materials. In the solutions of lower concentration the retarding factor for plant growth is not necessarily connected with the low osmotic pressure, for the same acceleration of growth which is observed to accompany an increase in concentration can be obtained by entirely different means. The author has already called attention to the fact that both nutrient solutions and soil extracts are greatly improved for the growth of wheat by addition of small quantities of the practically insoluble bodies, carbon black and ferric hydrate and that the beneficial effect of these bodies is due to their power to absorb toxic substances. Such toxic materials are present in many soils, and physiologically similar ones are given off by the roots of wheat grown in water culture.3 The addition of these insoluble bodies to a weak nutrient solution can not possibly increase its concentration to any appreciable degree; indeed, such addition is apt to decrease its concentration to some extent owing to phenomena of adsorption. Yet such treatments result in the same sort of acceleration of growth as is obtained with increase in concentration. Dr. B. E. Livingston, of the bureau of soils, has made possible a quantitative comparison in this regard by furnishing the author with 2 Breazeale, J. F., Effect of Certain Solids upon the Growth of Wheat in Water Cultures,' about to appear in the Botanical Gazette. In this regard see Livingston, B. E., Britton, J. C., and Reid, F. R., 'Studies on the Properties of a Sterile Soil, U. S. Dept. Agric., Bureau of Soils, Bul. No. 28. unpublished data from experiments which he has recently performed. He finds from an average of six different tests in which ferric hydrate was added to the nutrient solution described above, the latter having a concentration of 75 parts per million, that growth is accelerated by this treatment to an extent equivalent to 26.2 per cent., the growth obtained in the untreated solution being considered as unity for the comparison. The same nutrient solution with carbon black gave 35 per cent. increase in growth on the same basis. The last figure is an average of the results of two experiments. The data of experiments I. to VI. of the present paper (Table I.) show that the average growth in the nutrient solution of 75 parts per million is 161.6, and for the same solution of a concentration of 155 parts per million the average growth is 188.7. On the average, the latter concentration is the optimum for wheat growth as nearly as this can be approximated from the series, so that the acceleration which it is possible to obtain by increase in concentration is 188.7-161.6/161.6, or 16.8 per cent. Considering only the four experi ments which showed an increase in favor of the stronger of these two concentrations (experiments I., II., III. and VI.), this average is, of course, much higher, being 27 per cent., or very nearly the same as the increase obtained by treating the weaker solution with ferric hydrate, and considerably less than that obtained with carbon. Thus we are confronted with a case where two entirely different treatments bring about the same effect upon the plant. It is practically proved that the insoluble bodies have their effect here by removing from solution the deleterious excretions of the plant roots. The effect of increase in concentration may be explained by one or more of the three following hypotheses: The higher concentration may make the plant more resistant to the poisons; it may actually prevent the excretion of such poisons from the roots; or with higher concentration of salts the poisons themselves may be altered so as to lose their toxic properties. Which of these explanations is correct can not be decided now, but it is at any rate very clear that the acceleration observed has no direct connection with the nutrient value of the medium. In soil or sand cultures the effect of concentration is known to be very different from that in water cultures; for instance, the concentration best suited to wheat in water culture is about 300 parts per million of nutrient solution, while in sand it lies in the vicinity of 2,500 parts per million. To investigate the question whether the effect of strength of solution in sand is due to physical concentration or to chemical conditions of nutriment, several series of sand cultures were carried out. Pure quartz sand was placed in paraffined wire baskets of the form described in Bulletin No. 23 of this bureau, and the hardened paraffin at the bottom was punctured with pin holes to allow free drainage. In experiment X. six wheat plants were grown in these baskets for sixteen days, the sand being flooded daily with nutrient solutions of concentrations of 15, 75, 750 and 1,550 parts per million of total salts, respectively, while the excess of solution was allowed to drain out |