120 DRObEKA EOTUNDIFOLIA. CHAP. VI. 



stimulant as fresh gluten, and does not much injure 

 the glands ; and we further learn that it can be di- 

 gested quickly and completely by the secretion. 



Globulin or Crystallin. This substance was kindly prepared 

 for me from the lens of the eye by Dr. Moore, and consisted of 

 hard, colourless, transparent fragments. It is said* that globulin 

 ought to " swell up in water and dissolve, for the most part 

 forming a gummy liquid ;" but this did not occur with the above 

 fragments, though kept in water for four days. Particles, some 

 moistened with water, others with weak hydrochloric acid, 

 others soaked in water for one or two days, were placed on 

 nineteen leaves. Most of these leaves, especially those with the 

 long soaked particles, became strongly inflected in a few hours. 

 The greater number re-expanded after three or four days ; but 

 three of the leaves remained inflected during one, two, or three 

 additional days. Hence some exciting matter must have been 

 absorbed; but the fragments, though perhaps softened in a 

 greater degree than those kept for the same time in water, 

 retained all their angles as sharp as ever. As globulin is an 

 albuminous substance, I was astonished at this result ; and my 

 object being to compare the action of the secretion with that ot 

 gastric juice, I asked Dr. Burdon Sanderson to try some of the 

 globulin used by me. He reports that " it was subjected to a 

 liquid containing 0'2 per cent, of hydrochloric acid, and about 

 1 per cent, of glycerine extract of the stomach of a dog. It was 

 then ascertained that this liquid was capable of digesting T31 

 of its weight of unboiled fibrin in 1 hr. ; whereas, during the 

 hour, only 0'141 of the above globulin was dissolved. In both 

 cases an excess of the substance to be digested was subjected to 

 the liquid."! We thus see that within the same time less than 

 one-ninth by weight of globulin than of fibrin was dissolved ; 

 and bearing in mind that pepsin with acids of the acetic series 

 has only about one-third of the digestive power of pepsin with 

 hydrochloric acid, it is not surprising that the fragments of 



* Watts' ' Diet, of Chemistry,' that it was far more soluble than 



vol. ii. p. 874. that which I used, though less 



t I may add that Dr. Sander- soluble than fibrin, of which, as 



cson prepared some fresh globulin we have seen, 1'Hl was dissolved, 



by Schmidt's method, and of this I wish that I had tried on Dro- 



0-865 was dissolved within the sera globulin prepared by thil 



same time, namely, one hour ; so method. 



