600 S. B. MTTRA. 



ci'ystalliiie style on a proteid sucli as egg-albamiu^ boiled egg 

 fibrin, muscular fibres, etc. 



But granted, it may be said, that there is an amylolytic 

 ferment in the style, still the proteid in the style may serve 

 as a reserve of proteid nutriment. And so, it may be said, 

 the foui-th liypothesis may still be regarded to embody, not 

 the whole truth it is true, but part of the truth. But this 

 idea is negatived by several considerations and facts. In the 

 first place a proteid matter (like that of the style) reserved as 

 a food material in an adult animal is practically unknown in 

 the animal kingdom. Then, if the style solution in water is 

 precipitated by alcohol, and the precipitate, consisting of a 

 globulin, kept under alcohol, it is seen that while the super- 

 natant alcoliol contains no ferment matter, the more insoluble 

 the precipitate becomes, the less is the ferment-activity of 

 the precipitate ; until at last, when the precipitate becomes 

 completely insoluble in water, its ferment-activity is also lost 

 completely. This points strongly to the conclusion that the 

 proteid of the style and the ferment are identical. But the 

 most striking proof that they are identical is furnished by 

 the fact that the temperature at which the proteid in a 

 Avatery solution of the style coagulates, and so loses its dis- 

 tinctive characteristics, is the same as that at which the 

 solution loses its ferment-activity completely. Under the 

 circumstances the proteid of the style and the ferment must 

 be regarded as identical. This being so, one cannot regard 

 that proteid as a reserve of nutriment. 



After all this, it is hardly necessary to say that the third 

 hypothesis, that the style is to be regarded as an excretory 

 matter, is quite untenable. It is not an excretion in the 

 strict sense of the w^ord, because it is a ferment, and a very 

 active and important ferment too. Besides, we know that it 

 performs an im])ortant function in the organism by coming into 

 contact with the food material in the stomach and acting- on it. 



The style cannot be regarded as a product of digestion, 

 because there is neither acid-albumin, nor alkali-albumin, 

 por any albumose, nor any peptone in it, 



