On the Composition of Cassiopea Xamachana. 



105 



ANALYSIS OF STARVED CASSIOPEA. 



Soon after the final body-weights were determined the specimens 

 were dried in an oven for three days in order to drive out most of the 

 moisture, and then were brought back to the Wistar Institute, where 

 the final drying process was completed two weeks later at 95° to 97° C. 

 The analysis was then made and the results are shown in table 6. 



Table 6. — Loss in body-weight and relations of icaler, solids, and nitrogen in ' 

 the starved Cassiopeas. 



'Averaged values. 

 PERCENTAGE OF WATER. 



The percentage of water is practically identical in the starved cassio- 

 peas of all sizes, and the average value is 94.88 per cent, which is 

 slightly higher (0.73 per cent) than the average values obtained from 

 the normal cassiopea. A part of this difference may be explained by 

 the fact of the more complete drying of the starved medusa under the 

 favorable conditions of the Institute laboratory as compared with the 

 difficult conditions at the Tortugas. However, as the data given by 

 Mayer also show a slight difference in the water-content between the 

 normal (95.1 per cent) and starved (95.3 per cent), it seems reasonable 

 to conclude that starvation tends to give a slightly higher percentage of 

 water. 



PERCENTAGE OF NITROGEN IN THE SOLIDS. 



As in the case of the normal cassiopea, the nitrogen-content is highest 

 in the smaller animals and tends to decrease with increasing body- 

 weight. The value of the nitrogen is, however, much higher in the 

 starved cassiopea than in the normal cassiopea of similar body-weight 

 (see table 7). 



Thus, 5.56 grams of the normal series gives 2.98 per cent of nitrogen 

 contrasted with 3.63 per cent of nitrogen in the starved cassiopea having 

 a body-weight of 5.83 grams. Such a relation is clearly shown in the 

 majority of cases. It is highly interesting to observe that the percentage 



