ABSTRACT
The nature of the base is far more important, as far as can be judged from the few experiments here given, than that of the acid; and this is the conclusion at which physiologists have arrived with respect to animals. An excellent instance of the different action of the two series is presented by the phosphate of soda quickly causing vigorous inflection, whilst phosphate of potash is quite inefficient. Of the salts and acids of ordinary metals, seventeen were tried, and only four, namely those of zinc, lead, manganese, and cobalt, failed to cause inflection. Acids have a strong tendency to cause the inflection of the tentacles. From the powerful effects of so many acids on Drosera, we are led to infer that those naturally contained in the tissues of this plant, as well as of others, must play some important part in their economy.
