The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-11-25
An interesting Experiment, Following Professor
Loeb's Discovery, Made at Oahu
College.

Interesting biological experiments
have just been completed at Oahu
College under the direction of Prof.
Loye Holmes Miller, which are valua-
bic TO persons interested in solving
problems presented by the tiny forms
of life which pass before the micro
scope.
Deep down in the sandy pools of the
coral reef near Waikiki, from which
the water, at lowest tides never entirely
recedes, there lives a most interesting
worm-like animal which in it's devel-
opment from egg TO adult growth
shows curious affinities to worms on
one hand and on the other to backbon-
ed animals, to which group man be-
longs. This small creature, known to
science as Ptychodera Flava, holds Z
place of deep interest to biologists, but
a scarcity of material at the proper
season has made his life history but
imperfectly known. Oahu College feels
mt SOlAS1 0CIScl1 SCNuA1hS
a specimen with abundant ripe eggs
with which to conduct experiments,
and watch glass full of eggs $1,000
of an inch in diameter means prize
to biology department.
None of the male element was discoy-
cred, however, and the precious cap
ture made by Prof Miller. seemed likely
to spoil for lack of that stimulus need
ed to start each microscopic sphere
growing and which would touch the
spring to loosen all the wondrous
possibilities held there dormant.
Only after a day of fruitless search for
the male animal was the happy thought
of chemical stimulus hit upon, out
then with the discouraging realization
that the college library contained no
exact account of Prof Jacques Loeb's
experiments in the same field at the
Chicago University. The experiment
was therefore conducted with a row of
numbered watch glasses containing
various percentage solutions of sodium
and magnesium salts, and these were
planted with a sprinkling of tiny eggs
in each. Nothing now remained but TO
wait.
Two hours showed no result, but at
the end of an additional half hour
there drifted into the field of the mi
croscope a tiny egg through the trans
parent covering of which could be seen
the distinct division into two equal
hemispheres, the first step in the de-
velopment of a typical egg cell. A
very unscholarly but enthusiastic yell
announced the discovery, not Of the
volume which ordinarily greets a tTl-
umph on the college campus, but none
the less a herald Of victory scored.
Ptychodera Flava had been forced 10
yield ND some of its fascinating secrets,
and was on the road to development in
a watch glass instead of in a coral
tide pool on the reef at Waikiki
Experiments of this nature are the
most important carried on in biolog-
zeal chemistry, that which amplifies
the vital activities of living substance,
and draws them nearer TO the ncn-liv-
ing or chemical actions.
The close of the last century brought
forth this one startling discovery that
stands out prominent among the array
of achievements that mark the last FIVE
decades of scientific thought, q discov-
erv that makes modern thinkers Won
der If this mysterious vital force Is TO
be made comprehensive TO rs. This
was no less than the substitution OF
purely chemical stimulus for that vital