The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1902-01-02
UPsETs THEORIES
A Chicago Professors Researches and
Experiments Compel the Rewriting
of Textbooks.

Jacques Loeb, of the University
of Chicago, created another sen.
sation Tuesday when he appeared
before large body of his asso-
ciates in the field of physiological
research. and calmly declared
that muscular action and all the
vital processes of the human
body are not due to the heat fur.
nished by the food that is eaten,
as is generally supposed, but
rather to the electricity contained
in the minute particles that com
pose the food. In other words,
electricity, instead of the dyna-
mic force from heat, is the basis
for muscular health and activity.
This new theory, which Prof.
Loeb says, accounts for all the
vital activities in all living be-
ings, from the highest to the
lowest, was said by the other
scientists to be the most import
ant explanation of the problem
of life ever advanced by the Chi
cago investigator. Prof. Loeb
himself declared that his discov-
cry of the artificial means of
Matching unfertilized eggs had
been of Importance only in show.
ing him the effect of the electrical
charges on life. Following Prof.
Loeb's paper on physical Eff
fects of Electrical Charges of Ions
and the Electrical Character of
Life Phenomena" Prof. G.. N.
Stewart of Western Reserve uni
versity, the chairman of the
meeting, rose, and, in behalf of
the society, thanked Prof. Loeb,
and Acknowledged he value of
his work. Prof. Stewart com
pared DR.. Loeb's work as equal
in value with that of Prof. Van
t'Hoff of Berlin. Another scien-
tist declared that this last dis.
covery would change the whole
basis of physiological text books
and make the writing of new
ones necessary.
Prof. Loeb's experiments cover
period of several years. He was
led to suspect the power of cleo
trically charged particles in the
food after noting that the electric
current is able to effect proto-
plasm in a more universal way
than any other stimulus. If elec-
tricity had this effect in the form
of currents, he argued, it ought
to do so in the form of ions,
which are only electrically
charged atoms.
81 experimental" he said,
with pieces of muscle and with
live sea animals of the lower
orders. / put jelly fish in con-
tact with solution of an elec-
trically charged substance, and
muscular action followed. When
a jelly fish was placed in a sub
stance which was a nonconductor
no movements resulted. Again,
/ tried to hatch some eggs of the
fundulus in a pure common salt
solution, and found that the solu-
ton destroyed the eggs. When
however, l added small amount
of calcium to the common salt
solution the eggs thrived and
were easily hatched.
These experiments proved
that a pure salt solution was
poison, but when another salt
with properties that neutralized
the first was added the solution
became wholesome. Now sodium
chloride, or common salt, con-
tains negatively charged electric
particles, and the calcium is cleo
tropositive. When the positive
and the negative particles just
Offset one another, and electric
conditions were perfect. obtain
ed rhythmlcal, healthy muscular
action.
I'm all living organisms, IN my
opinion, muscular action and ev-
cry vital process depend on the
equal adjustment of the positive
and negative electriacl atoms
contained in the food which sup
plies nourishment. The two
facts, which believe my expert
ments prove, are: First, that
rhythmic contraction occurs only
in. II che pEssenoa Of elaetzieells!