CRYSTALLINE STYLE OF LAMELLIBRANCHS 93 



cannot serve as a reserve of nutriment. List ('02) agreed with 

 Barrois that the style is similar to mucin and chondrin. 



Mitra ('01), ignorant of the work of Barrois, repeated most, 

 of the chemical analyses of Lambling, using the styles of Ano- 

 donta. His results in the main are of a confirmatory nature. 

 He states that the style contains no cellular elements, but is 

 composed of a colloid substance. Its solubility, according to 

 him, is due to the presence of a minute quantity of salts. His 

 tests for protein were similar to those of Lambling and revealed 

 the same facts. His chemical analysis (p. 599) showed about 

 88 per cent water, about 12 per cent of protein (globuhn), and 

 about 1 per cent of salts, which is a close approximation to the 

 results of Lambling. 



The credit for first determining the presence of enzymes in 

 the crystalline style has been given to Mitra ('01) by nearly all 

 subsequent investigators. However, as van Rynberk ('08) 

 points out, the credit for this discovery belongs to Coupin ('00), 

 his work appearing a year before that of Mitra. 



In a short note Coupin gives a summary of his results showing 

 that the style contains no sugar or fat, but only an albuminoid 

 substance. He concludes: 



Le stylet Crystallin des acephales est un sue digestif, un espece de 

 corn-prime de diastase, contenant beaucoup d'amylase, et peu de su- 

 crase, melees avec une substance muqueuse, destinee sans aucun 

 doute a empecher la trop rapide dilution du stylet dans I'eau de mer 

 contient restomac, et peutetre aussi a agglutiner les particlles solides 

 qui nagent dans celli-ci. 



He found, further, that the enzymes of the style were without 

 action upon egg albumen. 



Mitra showed that an aqueous solution of styles caused a 

 rapid conversion of starch to sugar, with an intermediate product 

 in the nature of dextrin. Its activity toward glycogen was found 

 to be similar to that of ptyalin. No action could be demon- 

 strated on egg albumen, fibrin, or muscle fibers. 



An extract of the hepatopancreas showed the same activity as 

 the style, while the extract of the mid intestine revealed hardly 

 a trace of this digestive action. 



