During the month of February, 1913, an examination was made of a number of celery plants, grown in the gardens attached to the South-Eastern Agricultural College, Wye, for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of damage produced at that time of the year by the parasitic fungus Septoria Petroselini var. Apii. Some of these plants were found to be in an advanced stage of decay, the affected portions being discoloured and pulpy, and showing every evidence of a soft, brown rot. As numerous pycnidia of the fungus were to be found on most of the plants examined and as that parasite is known to continue its ravages during the winter, even when the plants are dug and placed in storage, it was thought that the Septoria was the primary cause of the damage. It was found, however, in most cases, that when the soft pulp was subjected to microscopic examination, there was no trace of either pycnidia or mycelium, while bacteria and often eelworms were swarming in such material.

In earlier papers (this Journal, vol. IV. pp. 69 and 76) we have detailed the experimental evidence which led us to conclude (1) that the view as to the fungicidal action of Bordeaux mixtures favoured by Pickering, viz. the liberation of copper sulphate by atmospheric carbon dioxide, is untenable; and (2) that contact between the fungus and the copper compound present in the mixture will account largely for its efficiency owing to a solvent action on the part of the organism under certain conditions. Pickering (this Journal, V. p. 273) has criticised our general conclusions and the deductions which we have drawn from certain of our experiments; and therefore before describing our further work on the subject, a brief reference to some of the points which he has raised is desirable.

During the last fifty years a very large number of investigations concerning the feeding of animals have been carried out. Many of them are of the greatest accuracy and interest in themselves, but perhaps the fact which strikes the student of the nutrition literature is the very small number of really far reaching generalisations which have been drawn from such a large amount of experimental results.

In the preceding paper, attention is drawn to the fact that wide differences occur between individual animals in their capacity for converting food into fat. It is shown, for instance, that an individual ox on a fattening diet may increase in live weight as much as 3 lb. a day or as little as 1 lb. a day. The former would give out 17,000 Cals., and the latter 22,000 Cals. per day, a difference in heat evolution of about 25 per cent.