1 7 6 



OTTO GLASER. 



II. THE DILUENT EFFECT OF Arbacia EGGS. 



I tried practically all the familiar variants of the drop and 

 capillary methods for surface tension ; the rates of flow, of falling 

 plungers, and of capillary rise, for viscosity ; the Westphal bal- 

 ance, for specific gravity. Yet despite the precautions taken to 

 insure comparable measurements, my results remained inconsistent. 

 Even the specific gravity readings were irregular and their sense 

 totally contrary to expectations. In fact the specific gravity of 

 sea-water in process of receiving exudate from the eggs, rarely 

 rose, never remained constant, and almost invariably fell. The 

 records in f Table I. show the discrepancies. 



TABLE I. 



It is apparent that the introduction of Arbacia eggs into sea- 

 water results in a slight decrease of specific gravity and that this 

 decrease may be compensated or even over-compensated with the 

 lapse of time. This is illustrated by series E, based on a single 

 set of eggs, and by D. If their correctness could be established, 

 these observations would account for the inconsistencies in surface 

 tension and viscosity determinations ; yet the fall in specific grav- 

 ity, the irregularities in the magnitude of the fall, and the com- 

 pensations would remain to be accounted for. 



III. THE CHLORINE DEFICIT IN EGG-SECRETION. 



There are four possible explanations. First, the specific gravity 

 determinations may have been wrong. Secondly, the diluent ef- 

 fect of the eggs might be due to a liberation of heat. And finally, 



