100 DKOSEKA ROTUNDIFOLIA. CHAP. VI 



the least digested. There were also little free paral- 

 lelograms of yellowish, highly translucent matter. 

 Schiff, in speaking of the digestion of meat by gastric 

 juice, alludes to such parallelograms, and says : 



" Le gonflement par lequel commence la digestion cle la viande, 

 resulte de Faction du sue gastrique acide sur le tissu connectif 

 qui se dissout d'abord, et qui, par sa liquefaction, desagrege les 

 fibrilles. Celles-ci se dissolvent ensuite en grande partie, mais, 

 avant de passer a 1'etat liquide, elles tendent a se briser en 

 petits fragments transversaux. Les ' sarcous elements' de 

 Bowman, qui ne sont autre chose que les produits de cette 

 division transversals des fibrilles elementaires, peuvent etre 

 prepares et isoles a 1'aide du sue gastrique, pourvu qu'on 

 n'attend pas jusqu'a la liquefaction complete du muscle." 



After an interval of 72 hrs., from the time when 

 the five cubes were placed on the leaves, I opened the 

 four remaining ones. On two nothing could be seen 

 but little masses of transparent viscid fluid ; but 

 when these were examined under a high power, 

 fat-globules, bits of fibre-elastic tissue, and some few 

 parallelograms of sarcous matter, could be distin- 

 guished, but not a vestige of transverse striae. On the 

 other two leaves there were minute spheres of only 

 partially digested meat in the centre of much trans- 

 parent fluid. 



Fibrin. Bits of fibrin were left in water during 

 four days, whilst the following experiments were 

 tried, but they were not in the least acted on. The 

 fibrin which I first used was not pure, and included 

 dark particles : it had either not been well prepared 

 or had subsequently undergone some change. Thin 

 portions, about -V of an ' inch square, were placed 

 on several leaves, and though the fibrin was soon 

 liquefied, the whole was never dissolved. Smaller 

 particles were then placed on four leaves, and minute 



