ON THE REACTIONS OF AMEBA TO ISOLATED AND 

 COMPOUND PROTEINS 



A. A. SCHAEFFER 



From the Zoological Laboratory of the University of Tennessee 



SIX PLATES 



CONTENTS 



Introduction 53 



Experiments with globulin 55 



Granular amebas 56 



Reactions to large pieces of globulin 59 



Raptorial amebas 61 



Siunmarj' 63 



Experiments with gluten 64 



Summary 68 



Experiments with aleuronat 69 



Experiments with lactalbumin 70 



Summary 74 



Experiments with zein 74 



Experiments with ovalbumin 75 



Experiments with keratin 76 



Experiments with fibrin 78 



General summary 78 



INTRODUCTION 



Amebas have been shown to react positively to carmine, 

 uric acid, india ink and old solid egg white (Schaeffer, '16, Jour. 

 Exp. ZooL, vol. 20, On the feeding habits of ameba). All these 

 substances are comparatively easily soluble. Particles of these 

 substances are not only eaten when the amebas come into con- 

 tact with them, but all these substances are sensed at a dis- 

 tance of 100 microns or more and the usual result of such sens- 

 ing at a distance is movement toward them. It may be pre- 

 sumed therefore that since these substances are soluble, the 

 reaction at a distance to the solid particle is explained by the 

 diffusion of the dissolved substance. 



53 



