ANIMAL CHLOROPHYLL 369 



copper-containing pigment of the crustaceans is identical with 

 that of the molhiscs, its further consideration is unnecessary. 



Enterochlorophyll . — MacMunn (1883 c) discovered that 

 a pigment which was spectroscopically identical with plant 

 chlorophyll occurred in the liver of many molluscs and crusta- 

 ceans. He found that this pigment — which he named entero- 

 chlorophyll — occurs dissolved in oil globules or in granular 

 form, but sometimes even in the protoplasm of the secretory 

 cells of the liver. For a long time MacMunn believed that the 

 occurrence of enterochlorophyll in the livers of invertebrates 

 demonstrated that animals are capable of synthesizing chloro- 

 phyll. Finally, however, he was forced to abandon this position 

 when he (MacMunn, 1899 a) found that enterochlorophyll is 

 present in the intestine and blood of the forms in whose livers 

 it also occurs. He was thus forced to admit that entero- 

 chlorophyll enters the animal as food and is stored in the liver. 

 In his own words (p. 438) : ' I have been forced, I must confess 

 against my inclination, to believe that enterochlorophyll is 

 a pigment which primarily has been taken up from the intestine 

 dissolved in a fatty medium, and is carried either ])y 

 leucocytes, or in some other way to be deposited with this 

 fat, and perhaps other reserve products, in the gastric gland. 

 Whether it is utilized for the production of other pigments or 

 not is a question for future investigation. That it is a chloro- 

 phyll derivative I now believe to be proved.' 



The same conclusion was reached by Dastre (1899, p. 120), 

 who states : ' La chlorophylle hepatique n'est pas un produit 

 animal fabrique par le foie : c'est une chlorophylle vegetale, 

 venant des aliments, fixee seulement et conservee d'une fa^on 

 remarquable dans le tissu hepatique.' Further investigations 

 were made by Dastre and Floresco (1898, 1899 a, and 1899 h) 

 whose conclusions were the same. What is the significance of 

 the occurrence of chlorophyll in the livers of crustaceans and 

 molluscs ? 



The most obvious fact is that it is a food substance stored 

 there for future use. But of even greater importance is the 

 fact that chlorophyll is shown by these observations to be 



