130 DROSERA ROTUNDIFOLIA. CHAP. VI 



failed to digest fresh gluten, apparently from its 

 injuring the glands, though some was absorbed. Kaw 

 meat, unless in very small bits, and large pieces of 

 albumen, &c., likewise injure the leaves, which seem 

 to suffer, like animals, from a surfeit. I know not 

 whether the analogy is a real one, but it is worth 

 notice that a decoction of cabbage leaves is far more 

 exciting and probably nutritious to Drosera than an 

 infusion made with tepid water ; and boiled cabbages 

 are far more nutritious, at least to man, than the un- 

 cooked leaves. The most striking of all the cases, 

 though not really more remarkable than many others, 

 is the digestion of so hard and tough a substance as 

 cartilage. The dissolution of pure phosphate of lime, 

 of bone, dentine, and especially enamel, seems won- 

 derful ; but it depends merely on the long-continued 

 secretion of an acid ; and this is secreted for a longer 

 time under these circumstances than under any others. 

 It was interesting to observe that as long as the acid 

 was consumed in dissolving the phosphate of lime, no 

 true digestion occurred ; but that as soon as the bone 

 was completely decalcified, the fibrous basis was at- 

 tacked and liquefied with the greatest ease. The 

 twelve substances above enumerated, which are com- 

 pletely dissolved by the secretion, are likewise dis- 

 solved by the gastric juice of the higher animals ; 

 and they are acted on in the same manner, as shown 

 by the rounding of the angles of albumen, and more 

 especially by the manner in which the transverse striae 

 of the fibres of muscle disappear. 



The secretion of Drosera and gastric juice were 

 both able to dissolve some element or impurity out of 

 the globulin and hsematin employed by me. The 

 secretion also dissolved something out of chemically 



