62 rKOCEEDINGS OF THE 



antiseptics, such as toluol, pnissic acid, and sodium fluoride, with 

 the result that whilst in certain experiments hoth fibi'in-digestion 

 and peptolysis (of Witte-peptone) took place, in others peptolysis 

 was etfected without fibrin-digestion or vice-versa. The latter 

 result is susceptible of two explanations : it may indicate the 

 presence of a single protease of the nature of trypsin, of \\hich 

 either the peptonising or the peptolytic activity was paralysed by 

 the autiseptic : or it may indicate the presence of two proteases — 

 the one peptonising and of the uatm-e of pepsin ; the other pepto- 

 lytic, an erepsin ; the one having been paralysed by the antiseptic, 

 but not the other. Of these two alternatives, tlie first would 

 seem to be less probable ; for it is natural to suppose that if a 

 single protease were prejudicially affected, all forms of its activity 

 would suffer equally. If the second alternative prove to be well- 

 founded, it Avill be of exceptional interest ; for, in that case, these 

 observations will have demonstrated, for the first time, the presence 

 of a peptic protease in plants. Not onl}' so, but it will also point 

 the way to the solution of the problem as to the nature of the 

 trypsin of animals, which may be thus shown to consist, as I have 

 already suggested, of a mixture of pepsin with erepsin. 



Although my own investigations have been confined to plants, 

 I have found it necessary to include the digestive processes of 

 animals in my remarks this evening : not only because the progress 

 of discovery in plants has been necessarily based for the most 

 part on the earlier discoveries in animals, but chiefly because the 

 processes are essentially the same in all living organisms, so that 

 the subject can only be intelligently dealt ^ith as a whole. It is 

 safe to prophesy that, as investigation is extended more cora- 

 prehensiveljr to the digestive processes of the lower animals, the 

 more manifest will this truth become. 



Abstract of Dr. Augustine Henry's discourse on Botanical 

 Collecting ; read 19th January, 1905. 



The actual methods were briefly alluded to, stress being laid on 

 truthful labelling of the specimens at the moment of collection, 

 instead of months afterwards, when identical numbers were often 

 given to plants of different provenance. With the aid of nearly 

 50 lantern-slides, he showed his travels in China, demonstrating 

 that the popular idea of that country as one vast rice-field was 

 fallacious, as it mainly consisted of vast mountain-ranges cut up 

 by deep valleys. In some of the slides the home of the wild forms 

 of the Chrysanthemum, Primula sinensis, etc., were shown : and 

 the lecturer alluded to the early history of horticulture in China, 

 stating that the first botanical garden there was made 111 n.c. in 

 Shensi, plants from subtropical regions, as the Banana, Areca 

 Palm, and Orange, being introduced. Other slides showed typical 

 forms of subtropical deciduous and evergi'een trees ; and the 

 occurrence of epiphytes and lianes in vast numbers was mentioned. 



