Ostensibly the purpose of Mr. Bryan's outpouring of idiotic contempt for science and learning was to assert the glory of man, to prove that he came "from above" and is created in the image of God. We have never read a more blasphemous speech than Mr. Bryan's. For the whole purport of it was to hold up to ridicule and contempt, to discredit and malign, the one achievement of man that most clearly distinguishes him from all the rest of the animal kingdom. For surely if man is distinct from the other animals the distinction lies in his creation of science, in his power to extend his understanding of the universe. Mr. Bryan cries out that the wicked scientists are robbing man of his sublime ancestry. Mr. Bryan is robbing man of all sublimity now. For when, pray, does man rise to a greater dignity than when a Copernicus, a Newton, a Darwin or an Einstein makes some part of the universe intelligible? Has man a greater dignity when he makes political speeches for big fees and plays upon the fears of the ignorant?

The assumption that righteousness as well as divinity is a monopoly of Mr. Bryan's fundamentalist friends is an impudent conceit. Mr. Bryan talks as if he, for example, were a better man, better morally, than the scientists upon whom he pours his contempt. They won't answer him, but the answer can and should be made for them. The answer is this: to contribute successfully to the progress of science requires more integrity of mind, more purity of heart, more unselfishness, more devotion, more unworldliness, than any other kind of human activity. The work is harder, the standards are higher, the discipline is more rigorous, than men like Mr. Bryan have ever dreamed of demanding of themselves.

There are quacks and knaves among scientists, to be sure, but among the men who are really doing the work of science a moral code exists and is followed which would put the rest of us to shame. The search for truth. That is a simple phrase, but the labor, the care, the patience and the exactness which it requires are something beyond the comprehension of a man. who has lived by flamboyant speeches. Has Mr. Bryan ever conceived, while he was on the Chautauqua as Secretary of State, or selling real estate in Florida, the quality of soul that is needed to induce a man to work thirty years over a microscope and then give his results, without a penny for himself, to all mankind?

The whole thing is beyond his ken. But at least he might be silent in the presence of men who are doing, if any men are doing it, the work God gave men brains to do. God did not make the human reason solely for use on the lecture platform. If the human reason has any purpose which may be called divine, that purpose is the full, free and fearless use of reason to understand the mysteries of the universe. -The New York World.

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

Interfacial Forces and Phenomena in Physiology. By SIR WILLIAM M. BAYLISS. E. P. Dutton & Co., New York, 1923. 196 pages.

are

on

WITH the advance in our knowledge of the processes of living matter has come an increasing appreciation of the degree to which the underlying chemical reactions are controlled by the special physical structure of the protoplasmic system. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the reactions determining the response of an irritable cell to stimulation is their susceptibility to electrical control; with this is associated a special sensitivity to the presence of surfaceactive compounds of all kinds. The general significance of these facts and their bearing on the problem of the structure of protoplasm have only recently been appreciated. Electrical sensitivity and narcotizability universal properties of protoplasm.1 These properties, however, are clearly based surface-processes the former depending on changes in the electrical polarization of interfaces (as Nernst first showed), and the latter on the displacement of reactive compounds from the protoplasmic surfaces (see especially Otto Warburg's recent work). The dependence of the metabolic reactions on protoplasmic structure thus appears to be essentially a consequence of their dependence on surface-conditions. Protoplasm is a colloidal system, bounded and partitioned by films with diffusion-proof or semi-permeable properties; hence it is a system in which the phenomena characteristic of surfaces or interfaces are exhibited in a highly developed form. Irritability, contractility, electrical and chemical sensitivity, distanceaction (transmissivity) are now seen to be expressions of this all-pervading rôle of surface-forces in protoplasmic activity. There is also every indication that normal growth (which is similarly electrically sensitive and narcotizable) is based primarily on the deposition of structure-forming material at the protoplasmic interfaces. This view implies that a concentration or deposition under the influence of surface forces, in other words a process of adsorption (which is essentially oriented attachment of molecules to surfaces), plays a controlling part in the formation of new organized structure; at least it is difficult to conceive of any other physical means of securing the necessary structural regularity.

The manner in which chemical reactions in polyphasic systems are influenced by the special conditions at the phase-boundaries is evidently a subject of

1 This was recognized by Claude Bernard in his "Leçons sur les phénomènes de la vie,” and elsewhere.

fundamental physiological interest; and it is only natural that the chief treatise in this field, Freundlich's "Kapillarchemie," should devote much space to physiological considerations. Sir William Bayliss' little book gives a highly interesting and individualif necessarily incomplete account of the physiological importance of interfacial phenomena. He characterizes protoplasm as "a heterogeneous system of many phases, solid and liquid, separated by membranes of whose internal arrangement little is known"; and he favors a conception of "ultra-microscopic reaction-chambers, bounded by reversible semipermeable membranes." In the first four chapters (occupying more than half of the book) he reviews briefly heterogeneous systems, surface-tension, adsorption and colloids. The importance of adsorption is especially insisted upon; the influence of electrolytes and of surface-charge on adsorption, chemical effects dependent on adsorption, the influence of the accompanying orientation on the reactivity of the adsorbed molecules and the rôle of adsorption in enzyme processes are considered in some detail.

Bayliss regards adsorption as a chief factor in the behavior of all colloidal systems; accordingly he deprecates the neglect of all but purely chemical considerations in the treatment of the colloidal behavior of proteins. To him the distinction between "classical" and "colloidal" chemistry is an imaginary one; naturally the chemical behavior of proteins is in accordance with their amino-acid constitution; but in addition they exhibit characteristic physical features of behavior which can only be explained by reference to adsorption and variation in state of aggregation. The characteristic lyotropic series (Hofmeister series) are the expression of such factors, which are superposed on the purely chemical. The problem of the hemoglobin-oxygen equilibria is discussed briefly in a separate chapter; Bayliss believes that the heterogeneous character of the system has been insufficiently considered, and that this may account in part for the anomalies in its chemical behavior.

There is an interesting brief discussion (pp. 124 ff.) of the possible rôle of adsorption in the metabolic reactions of protoplasm and especially in synthesis. Orientation of molecules at the protoplasmic interfaces may be a means of bringing reactive groups into conjunction. If water is less adsorbed than the interacting molecules it may be displaced from the surfaces; regions relatively free from water may thus originate, and the conditions for dehydrolytic synthesis (e.g., of esters) be furnished. The need for a low concentration of water at the site of many syntheses, including that of protein, is apparent. Here it may be recalled that in many unfertilized egg-cells a temporary dehydration (by hypertonic sea-water) is an

essential condition for the artificial initiation of development, a process evidently based on the synthesis of new structure-forming compounds.

The properties of plasma membranes are considered briefly, and the problem of varying permeability, with its relations to the bioelectric processes and stimulation, is reviewed. A brief but suggestive chapter is devoted to the phenomena of muscle, nerve, gland, lymph-formation, stimulation and the action of drugs; these are considered especially in their relation to membrane processes.

In the concluding chapter the author expresses his hope that the future will see an extensive development of physiology as a pure science; he believes that biophysics and biochemistry should be cultivated side by side, in close association with the study of fundamental physical principle.

Physiology owes much to Sir William Bayliss and will honor his memory. His was a generous, manysided, independent and creative spirit.

MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY WOODS HOLE, Mass.

RALPH S. LILLIE

SCIENTIFIC APPARATUS AND
LABORATORY METHODS

A SIMPLIFIED RAINPROOF VALVE FOR
POROUS PORCELAIN ATMOMETERS

THERE are many ways for operating porcelain atmometers, and all are good in various peoples' hands. Workers in ecology, forestry, horticulture, etc., who employ the Livingston porous porcelain atmometers may be interested in a new modification of the mercury valve recently used by the writer. A résumé of a number of different forms of mercury valves for this instrument has been given by Thone.1 The modification here described has been found more satisfactory for field work than any of those previously presented in the literature.

A glass closely bent J-tube with long arm about 20 cms and short arm about 4 cms long of barometer tubing (internal diameter 2 or 3 mm, external diameter 6 or 7 mm) is used to connect the porcelain piece (sphere, cylinder, etc.) with the reservoir, the bend being in the water below. The usual stoppers, one for the porcelain piece and one to fit the reservoir bottle, and provided with suitable air inlet, properly guarded to prevent the entrance of rain water, are slipped on the long arm and properly placed. The neck of the bottle must be large enough to admit the J-bend and the latter should be as narrow as possible,

1 Thone, F., "Rainproofing valve for atmometers, Ecology, 5: 408-414, 1924.

so as to allow readings to be more precise than can be made with a wider neck. To the short arm of the tube is temporarily attached a 30-cm flexible rubber tube provided near its free end with a Mohr cock or similar device for closing. Both tubes are completely filled with distilled water (by means of a small funnel or thistle-tube attached to the free end of the rubber tube) and the cock is closed. Next, the porcelain piece is filled with distilled water and the free end of the J-tube is inserted, the rubber stopper being forced firmly into place in the usual way. The whole assemblage is now reversed and held upright with the J-bend below. In this manner it is lowered into the reservoir, which is nearly filled with distilled water until the short arm of the J is below the water, then a drop or two of mercury is introduced into the open end of the rubber tube, and the cock is opened. The mercury drop falls to the glass J below and forms the valve in the same general manner as in several mountings previously described. The rubber tube is now pulled off and removed, and the J-tube is lowered farther till it nearly

reaches the bottom of the reservoir. The reservoir stopper borne on the tube is firmly set into place, and the operation of installing is complete except for the subsequent filling the reservoir to the index mark in its neck. The amount of water entering the reservoir for a complete reversal of the valve2 is not more than .05 cubic centimeters.

BALTIMORE, MD.

L. J. PESSIN

SPECIAL ARTICLES

THE PHOTOCHEMISTRY OF COD LIVER OIL WHEN Kugelmass and McQuarrie suggested recently1 that oxidation of cod liver oil gave rise to ultra-violet radiation, the present writers were inspired to the extent of searching for other substances of biochemical or therapeutic interest which, when oxidized, might be persuaded to yield evidence of luminescence by prolonged exposure to sensitive plates. We were more disposed to this research by the encouraging reports of Steenbock2 on the antirachitic value of radiated foodstuffs, in which he quotes the above results, presumably in support of the probability of his findings. More recently Manvilles has quoted them in a similar connection.

2 Harvey, E. M., "The action of the rain-correcting atmometers,'' Plant World, 16: 89-93, 1913.

1 Kugelmass, E. N., and McQuarrie, I., SCIENCE, Vol. 60, No. 1551, Sept. 19, 1924.

2 Nelson and Steenbock, J. B. Chem., Vol. 62, p. 577, 1925.

3 Manville, Jour. A. M. A., Vol. 84, No. 19, p. 1401, 1925.

We have been unfortunate in not being able to find the substances for which we sought, nor have we been able to duplicate the results reported on cod liver oil, with satisfactory controls. We are publishing our work, however, for the use of those who may incline, as we did, toward an attractive interpretation of such findings, the further investigation of which has considerably disillusioned us.

We used Cramer instantaneous iso plates, each plate cut into four quarters just before exposure, one of which was used as a control. In certain of the experiments we bathed the plates in Nujol mineral oil, to sensitize them to ultra-violet of 2,300 to 1,900 Å U checking against unsensitized parts of the same plate. We have also employed preexposure of the whole plate, before cutting, placed at one half meter from a light ruby lamp behind a ground glass screen, for ten seconds. This accomplished an exposure just sufficient to cause a slight fog with normal development; the next increment of exposure, during the experiment, was then several times more effective than the same exposure of the plate without preexposure. Except for this procedure plates were handled in complete darkness until development outside the direct beam from a safe red light.

Our experiments were performed in a light-proof box in the dark room, using Vitreosil five eighth inch test tubes as containers for the test material. Between the test tube and the plate was interposed a glass screen, with a hole or slit through which it was hoped to obtain the effects of ultra-violet radiation. Our first box, of wood, was painted on the inside with asphaltum. The tubes were thrust through holes in the cover, one half inch from the plate covered by the screen. In this box we obtained wonderful images of the slits, whether any cod liver oil was put in the tubes or not. We then transferred operations to a bright copper box, fitted with holders that facilitated manipulation, each tube and its corresponding plate being in a separate compartment. The screens used at this stage consisted of two plates of glass the edges of which were separated one fourth inch, and which were fastened together with two narrow cross

4 Dr. Samuel Pond, of this institution, informs us that Nujol sensitized iso plates without preexposure have the same sensitivity as, or greater than, the Schumann plates, from the beginning of the gelatin absorption range (2300 AU) to the quartz absorption range (1900 A ̊ U). (Lyman, T., SCIENCE, July 20, 1921, p. 48.) From 2,300 to 3,500 A U the sensitivity of iso unsensitized plates is equal to or better than the Schumann. (Harrison and Hesthal, Journ. Opt. Soc. of Am., 1924, Vol. 8, p. 482.) We wish to thank Dr. Pond for valuable advice throughout the photographic procedure.

strips of glass, stuck on with balsam. Again we got beautiful images of the slits, especially behind the glass cross-pieces, from radiation which we finally traced to the balsam. We therefore bored one half inch holes through glass plates two by two and one half inches and slipped these behind spring clips, inserting the plates between the screens and the side of the box. This apparatus was put in a second bright tin box (light proof), the whole wrapped in black oil cloth, and kept in the dark room in a drawer, with the door locked, all the lights being unscrewed from the sockets. Images of the holes through the screens appeared as before, equally dense from the blank tubes and the test solutions, but the necessary exposure with this apparatus was longer. Oil kept in the dark for two weeks gave the same results as that kept in diffuse light on the laboratory shelf, and exposure for one half hour to bright sunlight had no effect as compared with unradiated oil. Two different samples of oil were used, one very old sample (judged by its odor) and a fresh sample purchased at the hospital pharmacy. Both gave similar results. Nujol sensitized plates showed no greater density than unsensitized. The oil was not tested on animals for antirachitic properties.

We therefore assign all our results to black body radiation of a wave length that may penetrate quartz but not glass. Further evidence to this conclusion was obtained by conducting the experiments in a warm dark room at 40° C., where the results were much 1 more pronounced. If the reactants were such as to raise the temperature still further (e.g., neutralization of strong acid by KOH), splendid images resulted after one or two hours.

Our last experiment, No. 52 (a repetition of No. 51) was conducted as follows. Four similar quartz tubes were inserted in their holders. One was left empty, one filled with cod liver oil, one with 6 cc oil and 2 cc 40 per cent. KOH, and the fourth with the same amounts of KOH and oil but with oxygen slowly bubbling through. A plate was preexposed, cut and the quarters inserted behind glass screens with holes bored through them and left at room temperature under conditions described above for 73 hours, the plates being spaced one fourth inch from the sides of the tubes. The four sections of the plate were developed coincidentally in the same tray, and all showed equal density of background and equal density of round image. The slightly greater density that one of us thought he could see in the control we assign, if it existed, to the circumstance that the cod liver oil in the other tubes may have shielded the plates from radiation from the opposite walls of their compartments.

Previous reports have appeared on the nature of black body radiation that is transmitted by quartz but

absorbed by glass, capable of affecting a photographic plate.5

In conclusion, though we have not perhaps demonstrated the absence of ultra-violet radiation from cod liver oil, all our positive findings of differential effects we have been able to trace to faulty procedure. Our results differ from those of Kugelmass and McQuarrie in that (1) we have been unable to confirm their positive findings, and (2) we have demonstrated the effectiveness of black body radiation in simulating such results, with poorly controlled technique. E. S. WEST, G. H. BISHOP

MEDICAL SCHOOL WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

"RUSSELL EFFECT," NOT ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT, RESPONSIBLE FOR CHANGES PRODUCED IN THE PHOTOGRAPHIC PLATE BY ANTIRACHITIC

SUBSTANCES1

In a previous preliminary communication2 the conclusion was drawn that ultraviolet light is emitted by cod liver oil and certain other substances curative of rickets when they are oxidized in alkaline media. The first method employed in the qualitative experiments reported was that of exposing a sensitive photographic plate to the substance to be tested for a period of twenty-four to forty-eight hours at a distance of a few inches and with a transparent quartz screen interposed to exclude the effects of reducing vapors. The quartz was sealed over a small aperture in the bottom of the lead plate-holder by means of two layers of adhesive tape. The photographic plate was placed in its holder with the film side down in apposition with the quartz window. This preparation was then placed directly over a beaker partially filled with the substance to be tested. The latter was alkalinized with sodium hydroxide and oxidized by a stream of oxygen or by the addition of hydrogen peroxide. All experiments were carried out completely in the dark

room.

The conclusion that ultraviolet light was emitted

5 Coblentz, W. W., Reports of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Publ. No. 65, Part III, p. 21, 1906. Publ. No. 97, Part VII, p. 140, 1908. Quartz is shown to transmit 90 per cent. of the energy in the infra red affecting the photographic plate; furthermore, quartz itself emits at room temperature infra-red radiation in this region, with an emission maximum just within the range of photographic sensitivity.

1 From the Department of Pediatrics, Yale University, New Haven.

L

was based upon the following facts. Visible light was never observed. When developed, most of the plates showed the presence of shadows corresponding in position and outline to the quartz window of the plate-holder. When the dry plate was exposed with the film side away from the substance, no shadowing was produced. Neither was there any fogging of the control plates. It was believed, therefore, that invisible ultraviolet light capable of passing through quartz but not through glass was given off.

Since the preliminary communication we have been forced to alter our original interpretation of the phenomenon observed. Attempts to obtain quantitative data with a more elaborate technique and with more rigid control of all the factors concerned gave such discordant results that the original methods were reexamined. After further investigation we have been forced to the conclusion that the great majority of our results can best be interpreted on the ground that they were produced by reducing vapors and not by the emission of light. The experiments failed to furnish evidence of a light emanation from oxidized substances curative of rickets. Since, in addition, we have been unable to detect the emanation of light under these conditions with the most sensitive photoelectric cell, we believe the phenomenon too difficult to isolate at present; it is probably of the nature of the so-called Russell effect.

In 1898 W. J. Russell discovered that a large number of substances of most diverse character rendered a photographic plate developable. This phenomenon has since been referred to as the "Russell effect," "photechic effect," "Moser rays," "Metallic radiations," etc.-all pseudo-photographic effects.

A survey of the literature reveals that the phenomenon has been extensively observed and has been characterized by a number of properties. For example, it has been stated that the photographic plate is affected through thin sheets of gelatin, gutta percha, celluloid, collodion, tracing paper, photographic paper and porous substances but not through glass, quartz, mica and aluminum ; the emanation is not propagated in a rectilinear manner and can be swept along a bent tube by a current of air;5 the effect can not be produced on a photographic plate in a current of carbon dioxide, dry air, hydrogen or in a vacuum; the shadows formed are not bounded by straight lines 3 W. J. Russell, Proc. Roy. Soc., London, 63, 102 (1898).

4 W. J. Russell, loc. cit.; Proc. Roy. Soc., London, 80, 376 (1918).

5 W. J. Russell, Eder's Jahrbuch 9 (1899).

6 W. J. Russell, Proc. Roy. Soc., London, 64, 409 (1899).

7

but curve around a screen; the property can be transferred from an active to an inactive body by contact; the emanation does not affect an electrical field; the phenomenon occurs only in the presence of moist air and increased humidity accelerates it; the effect is accentuated by previous exposure to sunlight, a moment's exposure producing activity for weeks, intense at first but gradually becoming feebler;10 the property is lost by exposure of the substance in complete darkness; it may be restored by exposure to light and oxygen;11 it is destroyed by heat;12 the activity of the metals is in the order of the E.M.F. series and is promoted by cleaning the surface or merely scratching it;13 the property common to all substances capable of fogging a photographic plate is their oxygenabsorbing capacity.14

The relation of the phenomenon to physiology was first studied by V. Schlaepfer,15 who interpreted his experimental data on the basis of light emission. He found that lecithin, blood and certain organs of rabbits, when oxidized, fogged a photographic plate, the intensity of the shadow being related to the previous exposure of the animal or material to sunlight.

The active agency in this phenomenon appears to be a material substance rather than a radiation and chemical studies indicate that it is hydrogen peroxide, an intermediate product in organic oxidations.* All the phenomena exhibited by the active bodies can be reproduced by the solution and vapor of hydrogen peroxide itself. Russell found that a developable impression was produced on a dry plate by exposure for eighteen hours to the vapor of a solution containing only one part of hydrogen peroxide in a million parts of water,16 thereby duplicating the action of light on a photographic plate.

The reverse reaction, wherein bubbles of oxygen were observed upon exposure of the oxidized substances to the mercury vapor quartz lamp, has not been confirmed.

YALE UNIVERSITY

I. N. KUGELMASS I. MCQUARRIE

7 W. J. Russell, Phot. J., 345 (1908).

8 G. W. A. Kahlbaum, Chem. Centralblatt, 1905, 323. 9 J. Blass and P. Czermak, Physik. Z., 5, 36 (1904). 10 G. LeBon, Comp. rendu. Acad. Sci., 174 (1899). 11 E. Legrady, Z. wiss. photog., 60, 1908.

12 W. J. Russell, Proc. Roy. Soc., London, 64, 409 (1899); Luppo-Cramer, Phot. Korr., 1902, 563. 13 Ibid.

14 Kugelmass and I. McQuarrie, loc. cit.

15 V. Schlaepfer, Pfluger's Archiv. f. Physiol., 561 (1905).

16 W. J. Russell, loc. cit.; O. Dony, Chem. Centralblatt, 1908, 569.