Untersuchungen über die Stärkekörner

Abstract

THOSE who are best acquainted with the laboured details of Naegeli's classical investigations into the nature and growth of starch-grains, and the controversy which followed regarding his astounding hypothesis, which so long dominated certain of our text-books under the name of the “intussusception theory,” will best be prepared for another huge work of inquiry into the physical and chemical nature, growth and solution, and significance to the plant generally of those curious structures. The full appreciation of the magnitude and value of Meyer's task will depend on the reader's acquaintance with the bearing of numerous discoveries which have been made since Naegeli's day, and turned to criticism and the final overthrow of his hypothesis; and among these stand prominently, on the biological side, Schimper's demonstration of the significance of the various plastids to the stratification of the starch-grain, Sachs' brilliant work on the râle of the starch-grain in assimilation, and Strass-burger's severe criticisms in his researches on the structure and growth of the cell-wall; and, on the physical and chemical side, Emil Fischer's work on the synthesis of carbohydrates, and the splendid work of our own countryman Horace Brown—the latter, indeed, as much physiological as chemical in its methods and results.

Untersuchungen über die Stärkekörner.

By Dr. A. Meyer. (Jena: Fischer, 1895.)