246 L. V. HEILBRUNN. 



important for membrane elevation. Centrifuging removes the 

 jelly from proximity to the egg surface. In favor of this view 

 is the fact that mercuric chloride regularly does break down into 

 calomel (or mercuric oxychloride) and chlorine in the presence 

 of organic substances (Mellor, 4 Gmelin-Kraut 5 ). On the other 

 hand it should be pointed out that if the jelly is removed from 

 the eggs either by shaking or centrifuging or both, and the eggs 

 are then subjected to mercuric chloride solution, they undergo 

 membrane elevation just as well as when the jelly is present. 

 This fact need not interfere with our hypothesis. We can 

 assume that although ordinarily the mercuric chloride reacts 

 with the jelly to form chlorine, in the absence of chlorine it may 

 react with the cortex of the egg itself. 



A test of this point might be made by removing the jelly, 

 treating with mercuric chloride and then centrifuging. If the 

 above interpretation is correct then centrifuging of jelly-free 

 eggs should not interfere with membrane elevation produced by 

 the mercury salt. Unfortunately such a test was not made. 



But there is other evidence in favor of the view that mercuric 

 chloride reacts with some part of the egg. Sublimate solutions 

 lose their effectiveness when allowed to stand over eggs. In one 

 instance, after an m/io,ooo solution had stood over eggs for 10 

 hours it in large measure lost its effectiveness as a stimulant to 

 membrane elevation. Although a control of the same solution 

 produced typical membrane elevation, the solution which had 

 stood over eggs caused at best only a partial and slight membrane 

 elevation. Even in the absence of eggs an m/ 10,000 mercuric 

 chloride solution slowly loses its power to cause membrane 

 elevation. The loss of this power is much more rapid in the 

 presence of eggs. 



If we assume that mercuric chloride gives off chlorine and it 

 is this substance which causes membrane elevation, it should be 

 possible to duplicate the action of the mercury salt with chlorine 

 itself. 



Chlorine gas was manufactured by adding hydrochloric acid 

 to potassium permanganate and the gas was then passed through 

 sea-water. If two drops of the solution of chlorine in sea-water 

 are added to 20 cc. of sea-water the resultant solution is then 



