NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 435 



(•' Pioc. Roy. See.,' vol xxv), viz. blue chlorophyll, yellow 

 chlorophyll, and chlorofiicine, is, nevertheless, distinct, and 

 for it he proposed the name Bonelleine. The spectroscopy of 

 the other cases of chlorophylloid substance in animals has 

 not been worked out m detail, though I have shown that 

 the absorption spectrum of the green colour of Hydra, of 

 Chfetopterus, and of Idotea, is similar in respect of its chief 

 lines to that of the chlorophyll group. 



Besides the facts as to (1) solubility ; (2) fluorescence of the 

 solution; (-3) evanescence of the colour in sunlight; (4) position 

 of the absorption bands ; (5) optical and other properties of the 

 products obtained by reagents, there are other highly-important 

 classes of facts to be looked into in connection with the his- 

 tory of the chlorophylloid substances of animals. These are 

 (6) the form and distribution of tlie green-coloured substance 

 in the tissues of the animal possessing it ; and (7) the evi- 

 dences of its physiological activity (whether or not identical 

 with that established for the chlorophyll of plants). Mr. 

 Geddes showed, so far as this last point is concerned, that 

 large quantities of oxygen were liberated by the green Co?i- 

 voluta Schultzii, and on the hypothesis that this was due to 

 the breaking up of the CO2 into O and CO under the in- 

 fluence of chlorophyll in sunlight, proceeded to search for 

 evidence of the formation in the tissues of the Convoluta of 

 starch or similar substances. 



An analysis of the Convoluta en masse yielded evidence of 

 the presence of ordinary vegetable starch in quantity. This, 

 however, is not in itself a very striking fact. Sponges, 

 devoid of chlorophyll, are known to contain in vacuoles of 

 their constituent cells starch, so far as the blue reaction with 

 iodine is evidence of the presence of that body,' whilst the 

 glycogen reaction with iodine has been obtained from the 

 tissues of a variety of animals (Ttenia, Lamellibranchs, &c.). 

 What one would like to be able to adduce as evidence of the 

 physiological activity of the chlorophylloid substance of ani- 

 mals would be the appearance and disappearance of starch 

 granules in close association with the green substance, and 

 under such conditions as those established by Sachs in the 

 case of the chlorophyll grains of higher plants. Unfortu- 

 nately this is not possible in the case of Convoluta. Mr. 



^ See Keller, ' Zeitsclir, wiss. Zoo!.', Bd. xxx, p. 574, 1878. He ob- 

 tained, ill a certain number of cells of various sponges, a blue coloration 

 with iodine. The starch appeared to be in solution, and contained in large 

 vacuoles occupied by the solvent. Keller found it in Spougilla lacustris, 

 in Reniera lUoralis, Myxilla fasciculala, Geodia gigas, Tetluja hjncumm, 

 Suberites massa, Suberitesflavus. He failed, on searching, to find it in any 

 Calcispongise, in Halisarca, and in Chondrosia. 



