202 STANISLAW SKOWRON. 



compared with those of an extract from the ground worms, it is 

 easy to find a very striking difference. The slime continues to 

 glow for about half an hour if kept moist, while on the contrary 

 the light of the extract dies quickly, and on addition of water, 

 immediately. Filter paper saturated with slime gives off light 

 after an hour and a half if moistened ; the dried extract, however, 

 prepared from the ground worms, does not show any lumines- 

 cence. It is difficult to explain these facts by oxydation of lumi- 

 nous material alone, especially as the experiments of Gilchrist 

 show that pure luminous slime of Chilota mixed with water glows 

 brightly for over two hours. Acidity does not seem to play an 

 important role in the above mentioned observations, as solutions 

 with different pH did not prolong the luminescence. It seems 

 more probable that this difference may be due to some enzymes 

 liberated from the cells by grinding, which have an inhibiting 

 effect upon the luminous material. 



If to luminous bacteria some chloroform or ether be added, 

 the light becomes fainter and dies out quicklv. On the contrary 

 the extract from certain luminous animals such as Pelagia gives 

 a bright flash of light on addition of fresh or distilled water, ether, 

 saponin, etc. (E. N. Harvey, A. R. Moore). The extract of 

 Microscolex reacts like that of Pelagia. Of the cytolytic sub- 

 stances tried ether, chloroform, saponin, sodium glycocholate 

 only ether gives positive results. The light was however never 

 as bright as in the living animal, but still visible. Owing to the 

 rather small size of the animals it was difficult to experiment 

 with pure luminous slime, but a few observations showed that 

 in this case the action of the cytolytic substances were more 

 clearly seen. Ether and chloroform produce the brightest 

 luminescence of luminous slime of Microscolex and the same 

 effect was observed by rubbing it with a finger. 



E. N. Harvey supposes that the action of cytolytic substances 

 may cause the cyto- or granulolysis of luminous bodies. In 

 Microscolex it was difficult to observe directly the changes in the 

 granules themselves, but after a longer time the slime treated 

 previously with ether shows swelling of the luminous granules. 



It may be remarked that NaE in 1.5 per cent, concentration 

 has no inhibiting effect on luminescence of the slime or the extract 



