334 SEKGIUS MOEGULIS 



Examination of table 1 shows further that the per cent of water 

 content begins to dechne after about the thirteenth day. Thus, 

 eighteen days after operation, there was only 77 per cent of water 

 and thirty-three days after operation only 76.9 per cent. 



Looking through the average weights of the live specimens, 

 recorded in the sixth column, it will be observed that, disregard- 

 ing slight fluctuation, the animals were progressively decreasing 

 in weight, having lost about one-third of their weight at the time 

 the experiment ended. The great loss of substance in this experi- 

 ment is not at all surprising, since the worms were deprived of 

 food ; but, as will be seen later, the worms of the second series of 

 experiments were likewise losing in weight, although they were sup- 

 plied with food. Turning our attention now to the separate consti- 

 tuents of the body, namely, the dry substance and the water, we 

 find that the former suffers proportionally a greater reduction 

 in quantity than the latter. Thus, two days after the operation, 

 the weight of the organism having decreased 8.1 per cent, the 

 dry substance had lost 11.1 per cent while the water had diminished 

 only 6.7 per cent. Again, thirteen days after the operation, when 

 the maximum per cent of water had been attained, the dry sub- 

 stance had diminished 29.3 per cent and the water only 3.2 per 

 cent. And lastly, on August 9, when the per cent of water had 

 declined to 76.87, the loss of dry substance was 43.1 per cent, and 

 that of water 32.8 per cent. Of course, these calculations could 

 be valid only in case the worms of each group contained at the 

 beginning of the experiment exactly as much dry substance and 

 water as the worms of the control group did. Such an assumption 

 is evidently arbitrary; but while the above results are far from 

 being precise, they very probably indicate the nature of the real 

 condition. 



The rapid rise of the percentage of water in early stages of 

 regeneration is explicable upon the ground of the proportionately 

 greater loss of dry matter during this period; subsequently, when 

 the loss of water is somewhat accelerated, the percentage con- 

 tent of water diminishes. In this experiment it decreased to 

 76.87 per cent; but it is probable that had the experiment been 

 carried on for a longer time the per cent would have approached 



