ON MEMBRANES SATURATED WITH WATER. 11 



that is, when they are thoroughly charged with 

 water, there are formed, at all points where water 

 and alcohol meet, mixtures of the two, and as the 

 animal texture absorbs much less of an alcoholic 

 mixture than of pure water, more water is, of 

 course, expelled, than alcohol taken up. 



9-17 grammes of bladder, fresh, that is, saturated Amount of 

 with water (in which are contained 6*95 grammes of peiied from 

 water, and 2*22 of dry substance), when placed in alcohol. y 

 40 cubic centimetres of alcohol, weigh, at the end of 

 24 hours, 4*73 grammes, and have, consequently, lost 

 4'44 grammes. In the 4*73 grammes which remain, 

 are 2'22 grammes of dry bladder, and, of course, 

 2-51 grammes of liquid. If we assume that this 

 liquid has the same composition as the surrounding 

 mixture (which is found to contain 84 parts of 

 alcohol to 16 of water), it will consist of 2*11 

 grammes of alcohol and O40 of water ; and conse- 

 quently, of the 6'95 grammes of water originally 

 present, 6*45 grammes have been expelled, and 

 replaced by 2*11 grammes of alcohol. For 1 volume 

 of alcohol, therefore, retained by the bladder, rather 

 more than 3 volumes of water have been expelled 

 from it. 



Since, in this case, so much more water is ex- Moist 

 pelled than is taken up of alcohol, the first result is shrink 

 a shrinking of the animal substance.* 



* Fibrine and other animal matters exhibit results quite similar 

 to those obtained with bladder. 26*02 grammes of fibrine satu- 

 rated with water (containing 6'48 grammes of dry fibrine and 



