prae), Demodex (folliculorum), Dermanyssus (gallinae), Glyciphagus (domesticus), Polydesmus (complanatus), Psoroptes (equi), Rhizoglyphus (robini), Trombidium (holosericeum).

In a Carnegie publication, with two authors, it is stated, "No previous floral study of Rubus has been made in America, but several European species have received much attention (Knuth, 1908: 352)" and

bea).

ORTHOPTERA: Blatta (orientalis), Ectobius (lapponica), Gryllus (campestris), Periplaneta (americana).

ISOPTERA: Termes (fatale).

CORRODENTIA: Atropos (lignarium).

ANOPLURA: Pediculus (humanus), Phthirus (inguinalis so. pubis).

HEMIPTERA: Anthocoris (nemorum so. sylvestris), Corixa (striata = geoffroyi), Nabis (vagans so. ferus), Nepa (cinerea), Notonecta (glauca), Reduvius (personatus), Triatoma (gigas = rubrofasciatus).

DERMAPTERA: Forficula (auricularia).
SIPHONAPTERA: Pulex (irritans).

CH. W. STILES, Secretary.

CURIOSITIES OF ANTHECOLOGY KNUTH'S "Handbuch der Blütenbiologie" consists of Band I, 1-400, 1898; Band II, Teil 1, 1-697, 1898, Teil 2, 1-705, 1899; Band III, Teil 1, 1-570, 1904, Teil 2, 1-601, 1905. It is the most important general work on anthecology that has ever been published, summarizing all the literature down to 1903. It gives abstracts of all my flower and insect papers and gives the insect visits of all the species mentioned in them. Band II, Teil 1, 2, contains European and arctic results. Band III, Teil 1, 2, contains results from the rest of the world. I have the satisfaction of knowing that those who ignore my papers also ignore Knuth's work.

Davis' "Knuth's Handbook of Flower Biology" is another thing. Vol. II is Band II, Teil 1, of Knuth's work. Vol. III is Band II, Teil 2. Band III, Teil 1 and Teil 2 have not been translated.

It is remarkable how persons not really interested in this matter should feel impelled to write about it. In the Botanical Gazette we read, "The third volume of the English translation of Knuth's 'Handbuch der Blütenbiologie' has just appeared and completes the work."

In the American Bee Journal we find, "A survey of the whole subject may be obtained from the English translation of 'Knuth's Handbook of Flower Pollination,' three volumes published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1906. This admirable treatise has a splendid summary of the more important work done along the lines of pollination up to the year 1906."

no attention in this country, but several species have been studied in Europe (Knuth, 1906: 348)." But Knuth, 1904, Band III, Teil 1, 340, 344, gives abstracts of Rubus occidentalis and villosus, Rosa humilis and setigera and cites my "Rosaceae and Compositae" of 1894.

Another paper with two authors says: "Doubtless some of the papers dealing with flowers and bees have been overlooked." This article of 1920 repeats 385 and overlooks 259 of the cases recorded by me, all of them given by Knuth in 1905, Band III, Teil 2.

A paper with two authors involves a trinity, one, the other and both. A fine point of cooperation would be to combine with some one who would do the work and take the blame for any error, while you take the credit.

In "Flowers and Insects" (XXI, Bot. Gaz. 73: 148), I made a fuss about Knuth's volume II repeating Mueller's lists for the third time, while his volume III merely summarizes American lists. The joke is that Davis' "Knuth's Handbook" repeats Mueller's lists for the fourth time, while all mention of American lists is suppressed.

In a letter of December 8, 1919, the Oxford University Press, American Branch of the Clarendon Press, says, "Replying to your letter of Nov. 25th, we beg to say that the 4th and 5th Volumes of Knuth's 'Flower Pollination' have not yet been published, and we regret we have no information as to when they will be ready."

It is evident that the authors cited above as referring to the work thought that all of it had been translated, and that all who bought the first volumes thought that the rest would be translated.

CARLINVILLE, ILLINOIS

CHARLES ROBERTSON

AN EARLY BOOK ON ALGOLOGY A COPY of one of the rarest botanical works in America has recently been found at Rutgers University. This is "The Algae and Corallines of the Bay and Harbor of New York," published by Mr. C. F. Durant in 1850, said to be the first book on algology published in America. Only two other copies are known to be in existence, one each at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the New York Botanical Garden. The work is unique in that every plant described in the text is illustrated by an actual dried specimen, the little cards bearing the plants being pasted on

blank pages, thus forming a very original Icones Algarum.

The history of the book has been described by Hollick and interesting excerpts are given by him from Durant's notes, which now form an invaluable commentary on the floristic (and faunistic) communities of New York Harbor and Raritan Bay before pollution had destroyed them.

It is possible that still other copies are hidden away in our older libraries and can yet be retrieved. ARTHUR P. KELLEY

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

Manual of Meteorology, Vol. I. By SIR NAPIER SHAW, with the assistance of ELAINE AUSTIN. Cambridge University Press, 1926, pp. XX + 340, 121 illustrations. Price 30s. net.

THIS volume is part of the monumental work planned by Sir Napier Shaw when he retired from the directorship of the Meteorological Office. That the last shall be first receives a striking confirmation in the issue of the four volumes constituting the work, for the final volume (IV) was handed to the printer on Armistice Day, and duly made its bow to the reading public in 1919. It dealt primarily with wind and pressure; though perhaps pressure should come first, since difference in pressure initiates air flow or wind. Volume I now appears, and from a personal letter we know that Vol. III is ready for the press. Vol. IV bad 166 pages; the present volume (I) has just double that number, and naturally the price also is doubled; but the increase will not be grudged. The present volume carries as sub-title "Meteorology in History"; and the text justifies the heading.

The author gives his viewpoint when speaking of what was expected of him as his bit, during the World War. He says, "It became my duty to supply or alternatively to train officers for various meteorological services." The director was working in an environment "which contained within its own experience or on its shelves almost all that there is to know about the weather"; yet he had to send responsible officers into the services, "with a formula by which they could carry on in place of the knowledge that would enable them to become a part."

This and the feeling that the atmosphere should be studied as a whole led to the conception of a compendium of what had been done by workers in many lands. Furthermore, there lurks in the author's

1 Hollick, Arthur. "A Quaint Old Work on Seaweeds," Proc. Staten Island Assoc. Arts Sci., vol. 5, parts III and IV, 1915.

mind a feeling that the study of the atmosphere, that is, aerography, should be thrown open to amateurs, whereas it is now to all intents and purposes limited to a professional few in official harness. He says truly that the study of weather, "which in so far as it is specialized is devitalized," ought to be an attractive subject for amateurs. It is to furnish amateurs with the necessary historic background that this big piece of work was attempted.

The present volume has fifteen chapters, and in every chapter there is plenty that is filling and on the whole easily digestible. The menu ranges from Aristotle's Meteorologica to the equipment of a modern observatory, including radio-integrators, pyranometers and pyrgeometers. The illustrations are abundant and, considering the age of many of the originals, have come out well. The personal touch is shown in photographs of some of the international meteorological congresses.

The pioneers in meteorology were all good-looking men, although running largely to whiskers. In the Paris conference photograph not one of the thirtyfour faces is clean shaven. How fashion changes! To-day in a group of fifty airmen there would not be a single face adorned with excess pilosity.

There is one American meteorologist whose face is missing; that is William Ferrel, due probably to Ferrel's modesty. Langley and Maury are present; but Franklin and that earliest explorer of the upper air, Dr. John Jeffries, are missing. Robert Boyle might have been included, for certainly the author of the "Spring of the Air" did a lot to advance knowledge of air pressure.

There is little to criticize in the book, for it is evident that the utmost care has been taken to get dates, names and facts correct. A reviewer can only applaud the author and those who assisted him, for both quality and quantity of work. The type work is excellent, and the Cambridge University Press lives up to its high standard. The book contains 121 illustrations, 95 of which are cloud photographs. No one interested in aerography, the science of the air, can afford to be without the book.

ALEXANDER MCADIE

An Outline of a Reclassification of the Foraminifera. By JOSEPH A. CUSHMAN. Contributions from the Cushman Laboratory for Foraminiferal Research, Vol. 3, pt. 1, 1927, pp. 1-105, 21 plates. Published by the author at Sharon, Mass.

DR. CUSHMAN's latest work upon these important micro-organisms will be welcomed by all students of this class and particularly by those employed in economic geology. In a former article, issued by the

Smithsonian Institution in 1925, Cushman dealt with the methods of study and other features of general interest in addition to presenting a bibliography of the most useful works and descriptions and illustrations of important genera. The present article, which in an outline preliminary to a larger treatise, aims to bring order out of the former classifications and to arrange the many genera in natural grouping. Cushman is particularly well fitted for this task, with his twenty-five years of experience in active work upon fossil and recent foraminifera from all parts of the world.

This is the first complete classification of the formaminifera based purely on the study of the ontogeny and phylogeny in conjunction with the geologic history. The form of the adult test has been used as the basis in most previous classifications, but this is not alone sufficient because it is only the earlier stages that give the true relationships. Even then these stages should be observed in the microspheric form, as this is retrospective, repeating in its young many of the ancestral stages. The megalospheric specimens skip many of these earlier stages, thus arriving earlier at adult development and even assuming later characters undeveloped in the microspheric form. These two forms of the same species, the microspheric, with the small initial chamber reproducing asexually, and the megalospheric, with large initial chamber producing zoospores which fuse as in sexual reproduction, have caused much confusion in earlier work.

Instead of the ten families used in recent years, Cushman employs forty-five, due to a stricter limitation resulting in more concise grouping. The number of genera recognized has also increased, but the closely defined genera will be more easily identified than the nine inclusive groups hitherto recognized, which often contain remotely related forms. The work of many writers on the group in the past twenty years has been adopted wherever possible and the author's own studies have been largely drawn upon. The development from simple undivided forms to chambered ones is followed and the chitinous and arenaceous species are recognized as primitive, as has been done by many writers in recent years. The paper is illustrated by a table and twenty-one plates of drawings showing the relationships of the families and genera.

The publication of similar outlines of classification in all branches of biology would be not only a great stimulus to the study of natural history but also a corresponding relief to the specialist burdened with nomenclatorial problems.

U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM

R. S. BASSLER

SPECIAL ARTICLES

NOTES ON THE MECHANISM OF FER

MENTATION1

INVESTIGATIONS in recent years have cleared up important parts of the chemical processes in which different fermentations are concerned. Without having found final explanations, Harden and Young or L. Iwanow, for instance, have proved the necessity of the presence of phosphoric salts in the case of alcoholic fermentation. On the other hand, in 1910 O. Neubauer was in a position to show, on the basis of experiments, that in a later phase of the breaking down of sugar, which is initiated by enzymes, pyruvic acid appears to be an intermediate product. However, several years earlier Magnus Levy indicated that acetaldehyde is a probable product of the disintegration of sugars. In fact, the acetaldehyde could be intercepted and fixed by the process of Connstein and Lüdecke, furnishing in the following years, espe cially through the activities of several investigators, and recently by Willaman and Letcher, significant analytical insight into the mechanism of the breaking down of carbohydrates by means of enzymes and different microorganisms.

3

However, none of these investigators have given an account of the processes which are doubtlessly indispensable in explaining the physico-chemical mechanism which is involved. Probably assuming that the combination of the hexoses with inorganic salts, which is supposed to initiate the real decomposition of the sugar molecules, takes place outside of the cell, Paine, in the laboratory of Harden, investigated the permeability of yeast cells to hexosephosphates. These experiments have been interpreted very differently and very strangely by different workers. According to Harden, himself, "the yeast cell is at all

1 From the Division of Agricultural Biochemistry, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minn. Presented before the meeting of the Minnesota Section, Society for Experi mental Biology and Medicine, on December 15, 1926.

2 German patent, No. 298593/120 (1915); German patent, No. 298594-6/12o (1916).

3 Comp., F. F. Nord, Die Naturw., 7, 685 (1919). 4 F. F. Nord, Chem. Rev., 3, 60, 76 (1926). (This paper on "Chemical Processes in Fermentations" contains a bibliography to which the reader is referred for many of the literature citations used in the present paper. There was expressed in the same paper (p. 69) the opinion that in view of the assumed relations between thyroxin and bios the reduction of carbonyl- and other compounds by means of fermenting yeast (Lintner, Lüers, Neuberg, Nord and others) could be explained by an intermittent interaction between bios and this compound. In the meantime the former formula of thyroxin and according to a private communication from Dr. Edward C. Kendall the analysis of bios were found to be in disagreement with the facts.

events partially permeable to the sodium salt." Höber draws the conclusion that the permeability to salts is small, but he regards it also as possible that the whole phenomenon may simulate superficial adsorption, and finally C. Neuberg understood from the description of the experiments that the cell is "throughout" permeable to hexose-di-phosphoric salts. Smedley, MacLean and Hofferts in 1924 expressed the opinion "that the hexosephosphate molecules are not able to pass through the wall of the yeast cell, but that glucose and phosphate molecules pass separately into the cell, and are there combined." This assertion might be regarded as an unconscious application of the proposition of Ruhland and Hoffman® according to which the smaller the volume of the molecules, the faster is supposed to be their penetration into plant cells. In spite of the fact that this is contradicted by the rule of Overton, the assertion possesses a certain probability.

We must remember that the almost impossible detection of hexosephosphates in fermentations by means of yeast cells is in good harmony with the abundant formation of hexosephosphates by fermentations which are free of cells. The membrane of the cell is scarcely permeable to the synthease of Iwanow. In the case of uninjured yeast cells, there is in the outer medium only a very small quantity of hexose-di-phosphate, which might partially penetrate into the cell. If we henceforth assume, especially in accordance with the considerations and experiments of Witzemann, Gurchot and others, that also the membrane of the yeast cell represents a dynamic system which might be compared to a copperferrocyanide membrane, and therefore can be acted upon by intermittent coagulation and peptization, then the whole process will become readily intelligible.

The externally produced hexose-di-phosphates penetrate into the interior of the cell until a suitable salt concentration is reached which brings about the coagulation of the membrane. Through the fissures of this now "crystalline" membrane, uncombined sugar-which is typically non-diffusible-can now penetrate into the cell where it will be esterified by means of the synthease there present. The alteration (not fermentation) of the hexosephosphates into the "transportation form" of the sugar which takes place isochronously, and which is again subject to the direct splitting into the compounds of the 3-carbon chain, changes the internal concentration of the salts in such a manner that a repeptization takes

It is probably through an error that M. Schoen (Monogr. de l'Institut Pasteur, No. 3, p. 128: 1926) recently ascribed this suggestion to other authors.

• W. Ruhland and E. Hoffman, Arch. wiss. Bot., 1, p. 1, (1925).

place, the influx of the sugar ceases, and the cycle may be started again."

The chief characteristic of the process would be, under these conditions, an intermittent coagulationpeptization of the membrane, as well as endeavoring to maintain a membrane equilibrium in the sense of Clowes (1916). No acceptance is expressed, herewith, of his or v. Möllendorff's (1918) opinion that the membrane is comparable to an emulsion, which, of course, would make it impossible to understand the osmotic activities of the cell.

It is probable to a high degree that the greater part of the sugars is esterified within the cells where the enzymes exerting fermentation are located and where they will be liberated. It is, therefore, very important to possess a conception of the mechanism of the admittance. In contrast to this, it is only of secondary significance as to whether the hexose-diphosphates originate through an intermediate hexosemono-phosphate (compare, for instance, Komatsu and Nodzu, 1924). In any case, they are disintegrated and leave behind the sugar in the transportation form, which is readily cleavable and which does not need to be re-esterified. Isochronous rearrangements of intermittent processes exclude, of course, the accumulation of any intermediate products in the case of a normal method of fermentation.

The chief characteristic of the transportation form of a compound or system may be regarded as its capability either to mediate in intermittent actions, or to enable irreversible reactions to proceed, especially in cases where the use of a potentially higher energy content is involved. It is not supposed to exist in a form which can be investigated successfully by means of our present tools as a chemical entity. Its capacity to promote the aforementioned types of biological reactions is probably due in the main to an electron transfer caused by the ionic antagonism within the cell. Ionic antagonism, we know, also exerts a great influence upon enzyme action and there are certain reasons for assuming that the same is also true for the influence of adsorption. The reasons why it is improbable that we deal in the latter case with "molecular compounds" in the sense of P. Pfeiffer will be presented in a later paper.

At this point of the considerations, attempts were made to ferment the readily accessible hydroxy-pyruvic aldehyde in its mono-molecular or trimeric form,

7 Compare G. Bredig and M. Minaeff, Festschrift Z. Hundertjf, d. Technischen Hochschule Karlsruhe, 1925. 8 O. Meyerhof, Die Naturw., 41, 757 (1926).

9 It is under these circumstances misleading when e.g., the hexose-mono-phosphoric acids are recently designated to be "active" (compare O. Meyerhof, Die Naturwissenschaften 14, 1179 (1926)).

with the purpose of obtaining a better insight into the processes governing the decomposition of the 3-carbon chain compounds. No significant fermentability of a 2 per cent. solution could be observed by means of the American top or bottom yeasts which were at my disposal, in the presence or absence of mono-potassium phosphate, not even after digestion for several days at 34° C. This observation does not justify at present the drawing of definite conclusions regarding the behavior of this compound toward yeasts especially in comparing its behavior with the simultaneously effected control fermentation of d-glucose.10 In any case the substances are not biological equiva

lents.

Under these conditions, we could be inclined to doubt the view of Neubauer concerning the occurrence as an intermediate product of pyruvic acid in the course of alcoholic fermentation which requires as a first step methylglyoxal. C. Neuberg, Hildesheimer and Karczag in 1911 reinvestigated this question on a macro-chemical scale and, after an uncertain interpretation in a brilliant manner confirmed the previous statement concerning the transient existence of this acid. Fortunately it does not seem necessary to question these observations when we take into consideration that the experiments of Neubauer or the last-named authors are not depending on each other, viewed from a biological standpoint. In contradiction to this, the assertion that pyruvic acid is acted upon faster by fermentation than is sugar could not be confirmed by the exact investigations of Lebedew (1917, 1924), Hägglund and Augustson (1925) and others, all the more, as the control experiments on the fermentability of the pyruvic acid were carried out under unphysiological conditions. The authentic measurements of the absorption spectra by Henri and Fromageot, to which we referred already in 1925, show that under conditions of biochemically permissible concentrations, the acid is only present in the readily fermentable enol form. On the other hand, we know that the pyruvic acid is a very strong acid (K = 0.56) and since it is so highly dissociated, in accordance with the observations of Brenner, 12, Brooks, 13 and others,

10 This observation is in contrast to yet unpublished results obtained with Miss Mollie G. White, when this compound is acted upon by fusarium lini B. In this case it was possible to show that this fungus may utilize this compound as a sole carbon source.

11 Compare also H. v. Euler, Samml. chem. u. chem. techn. Vortr., 28, No. 6/7, p. 60 (1926).

12 W. Brenner, öfvers. Finska Vetensk.-Soc. Forhandl., 60, A, No. 4 (1917-1918).

13 M. M. Brooks, Public Health Reports, No. 845 (1923).

it may only enter uninjured cells or reach the place of enzymatic activity with great difficulty if at all. The connection of these observations is clear! The acid which is originated in a biochemical process, that is to say, within the cell, is present in the enol form which is readily fermentable. It will be isochronously decarboxylated with the same speed as the transportation form of the sugar is formed. In contra-distinction to this, when pyruvic acid is added to the mash itself, it is in an uncomparable degree more highly concentrated and will be fermented only in such proportion as the enol form is present and ready to undergo disintegration. This again is dependent on its ability to penetrate into the cell. We see, therefore, in conformity with earlier results first the outstanding significance of the transportation form of a compound which is indispensable to the initiation of a biochemical reaction.14 There belong probably in this small group also some sulfur containing compounds newly described and investigated which were supposed to have a decisive rôle in reversible physiological processes and certain compounds of the bile promoting the hydrodiffusion of the cell.15 The same importance also attaches to the "isochronic rearrangement" of this form, to which we referred recently16 in connection with certain It may, therefore, be regarded as certain that "unphysiologic" pyruvic acid is fermented slower than sugar in contra-distinction to the "biologic" acid which ferments practically with the same speed as sugar. It appears equally probable that considerations based on structural organic chemistry alone are hardly suitable to justify positive or negative conclusions which may be drawn from the macrochemical behavior of methylglyoxal, hydroxypyruvic aldehyde or related compounds concerning their behavior under biochemical conditions. Accordingly in the case of intracellular reactions there does not appear to be any logical basis for the calculation of a quotient based upon the rate of the fermentation of glucose as compared to that of pyruvic acid.

cases.

The more we increase our knowledge concerning the marvelous functions of the cell, the more we appear to be justified in explaining chemical reactions

14 It does not seem desirable at present to complicate the conception by analyzing the highly probable influence that the transient acid must have on the interfacial tension of the membrane.

15 Edward C. Kendall and F. F. Nord, Journal Biol. Chem., 69, 295 (1926). F. F. Nord, Die Naturwissenschaften, 15, 356 (1927).

16 F. F. Nord, Germ. Patent No. 434728/120 (1924); F. F. Nord, Beitr. z. Physiologie, 2, 301 (1924); C. Endoh, Rec. trav. chim. 44, 866 (1925).