LOEB, leb, •ACQUES (1859— r. A German American physiologist and experimental biologist. He graduated from the Ascanisches Gymnasium in Berlin ; studied medicine at Berlin and :Munich. re ceiving the degree of M.D.. at Strassburg in 1684. He was appointed State Examiner at Strassburg in 1865, was assistant in physiology at the Uni versity of Wiirzburg in 1666-S3. and held a simi lar position in the University of strassburg in 1668-90. Be made re-ca relic," in animal physiology at the Naples Zoi•ogical Station in 1669-91. lle was appointed associate professor of biology at Bryn Mawr College, 1891-92: was then (1892) called to Chicago University as assistant professor of physiology and experimental biology; and in 1895 was appointed associate professor. In 1902 he was elected professor of physiology in the University of California. Professor Loeb's work has been in the line of comparative physiology and psychology, lle is the pioneer in the study of the physiology of protoplasm, i.e. of cells and tissues. including the effects of salt solutions on the muscles of the heart in different animals. He has made ingenious experiments on the mecha nism of the reflex activities of the lower animals. with especial relation to the different kinds of tropisms and the mode of orientation of organ isms. Although the true basis of instinctive acts
as inherited reflexes was first pointed out by Herbert Spencer. Loeb has done much by his ex pernuents to show the slight line of demarcation existing between the lower instincts and reflex actions. Be has also made notable contribu tions to other problems in physiological psychol ogy. One of his latest researches is that on the artificial production of parthenogenesis by add ing salt (chloride of magnesium) to sea water. His essays have appeared in Pthiger's Archie, and in The American -Journal of Physiology. Among them are: The Heliot ropism of Animals and Its Identity with the Heliotropism of Plants (18901 ; Physiological Morphology (vol. i. 1S'91: vol ii. 1S92) ; intro duction to the Comparative Physiology of the Brain grad romparatirc Psychology (18991; "EN periments on Artificial Parthenogenesis in Anne lids. and the Nature of the Process of Fertiliza tion," in American Journal of Physiology, vol. iv. (1901). In his hook roinparatire Physiology of the Brain and romparat ire Psychology (1902) will he found the titles of other papers.