126 Proceedings of the Royal Soi-icfy of Victoria. 



distilled water, opened, and the contents of each placed in watch- 

 glasses (the organs being discarded), distilled water added, then 

 filtered, and the filtrate evaporated, and examined microscopic- 

 ally for amount of crystals, and also chemically tested. The 

 result of each examination was the finding of an amount of 

 magnesia sufficient to prove that osmosis had taken place. The 

 third basin of water used for the final washing of the organs 

 was chemically tested, without showing any appreciable amount 

 of magnesia. 



My conclusion regarding the digestion and assimilation of 

 Gryllotalpa, based upon the experimental work of others, and 

 my own, both physically and structurally, is : — 



1. That the salivary glands secrete an amylolytic and 



inversive ferment, which mixes with the food in 

 the crop (Plateau) and that absorption of the 

 glucose can take place in that organ by the 

 epithelial cells, which pass it on to the blood. 

 (Vide experimental proof ante). 



2. After a longer or shorter time the food is passed on 



and enters the gizzard, where it is squeezed, and 

 probably to some extent masticated. In the 

 squeezing the pulp is collected in the open food- 

 puli^ channels, which convey it into the cpeca ; the 

 coarse residue passing on to the hind-terminal canal. 



3. In the cteca the food-pulp is acted upon by secretions 



of the cells of the cell-nests, which rapidly disinte- 

 grate in the work. The fats are emulsified, and 

 a proteolytic ferment transforms the albuminoids 

 into peptones. The filamentous cells take up the 

 eumlsified fats, and split them into fatty acids 

 and glycerine within themselves, to be passed on 

 to the blood cells which carry them away, and 

 any excess over immediate requirement is stored 

 up probably in the fat bodies (Cuenot). Other 

 material may also be taken up by these eminently 

 absorbing cells. 



4. The remaining digested food passes into the fore- 



terminal canal, and then into the mid-terminal 

 canal, where it mixes with the coarse food materia] 



