ANIMAL-PLANTS, ETC. 



ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



37 



A process completely analogous to the excre- 

 tion of animals in discovered to take place in 

 tliis plant. That plants give off carbonic acid 

 as a product of waste tissue, just as animals 

 do, has long been observed. Nitrogenous prod- 

 ucts of the oxidation were by analogy known 

 to exist, but have never been observed. Na- 

 geli discovered in his analysis of the yeast-fun- 

 gas, besides the glycerine and succinio acid 

 winch were known as extractives of yeast, sev- 

 eral of the well-known nitrogenous products 

 of the waste of animal tissue guanine, xan- 

 thine, surkine, and leucine, the last of which is 

 believed to be in animals the urea in one of the 

 stages of its formation. 



A no less startling discovery has been made 

 in the animal kingdom by which one of the 

 l.ru.-tdest and plainest marks of distinction be- 

 tween the animal and plant kingdoms has been 

 obliterated. Certain animals are found to ex- 

 ercise a most important physiological process 

 which has been supposed to be the most exclu- 

 sive and distinctive attribute of vegetable life. 

 The green color of a number of the lower ani- 

 mals, belonging to widely separated groups, is 

 well known to bo due to the presence of chlo- 

 rophyl. This substance is found to exist in 

 certain infusoria, in a species of fresh-water 

 sponge, in the Hydra viridis, in a sea-anemone, 

 the Anthed cereus, in a tube-worm, the Chaep- 

 topterw Vylencienesii, in the Bonellia viridis, 

 in an isopod, the Idotea viridis, and in three 

 species of planarians. The green grains con- 

 tained in these animals were found by the 

 chemical and spectroscopic investigations of 

 Cohn, Ray, Lankester, and others, to be chem- 

 ically identical with plant - chlorophyl. That 

 they performed the chemico - physiological 

 function of chlorophyl in plants, that they 

 had the power and actually served to decom- 

 pose carbonic acid, was not established ; and 

 that such a process attended and supported 

 the life of these animals seemed quite as .in- 

 credible as did the fact that the nitrogenous 

 substances dissolved by the gastric fluid of the 

 carnivorous plants actually served as nutri- 

 ment. An English scientist, Geddes, has now 

 discovered that this process does take place in 

 the planarians at least. Placing a number of 

 specimens in water, and exposing them to the 

 rays of a bright sun, he found that they emit- 

 ted bubbles of gas which contained from 46 to 

 55 per cent, of oxygen. In their habitat on 

 the seashore they are always found covered by 

 a few centimetres of water only, and directly 

 exposed to the sun : in an aquarium they seek 

 the fullest exposure to the light, and live 

 much longer when in the light than when kept 

 in the shade. By dissolving out the chloro- 

 phyl with alcohol, and subjecting an aqueous 

 extract of the bleached and coagulated sub- 

 stance of their bodies to the delicate and in- 

 fallible iodine test, he discovered the indispu- 

 table presence of starch. The blue coloration, 

 fading out on exposure to heat and reappear- 

 ing when the solution cooled again, establishes 



beyond question the existence of this purely 

 vegetable constituent in these animals. 



These remarkable discoveries, following 

 closely one upon another, of plants which de- 

 vour, digest, and are nourished by animal food, 

 of veritable peptones formed by many plants, of 

 plants performing a process of excrementation, 

 and the converse discovery of starch-forming, 

 oxygen-exhaling animals, overturn the broad- 

 est, never-questioned generalization?, and ob- 

 literate the clearest marks of distinction which 

 have been fixed regarding the demarkation 

 of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. This 

 latest revelation of the infinite complexity 

 and manifold interlinkages of organic nature 

 is accentuated by its discoverer in the follow- 

 ing language : " As the Drosera,^ Dioncea, etc., 

 which have attracted so much attention of late 

 years, have received the striking name of ' car- 

 nivorous plants,' these planarians may not un- 

 fairly be called ' vegetating animals,' for the 

 one case is the precise reciprocal of the other. 

 Not only does the Dioncea imitate the carniv- 

 orous animal, and the Convoluta the ordinary 

 green plant, but each tends to lose its own 

 normal character. The tiny root and the half- 

 blanched leaves of Pinguicula are paralleled 

 by the absence of a distinct alimentary canal 

 and the abstemious habits of the planarian." 



ARGENTINE REPUBLIC (REP^BLIOA AH- 

 GENTTNA). For detailed statements of the ter- 

 ritorial divisions and population, reference may 

 be made to the "Annual Cyclopaedia" for 

 1877 and 1878. 



The President of the Republic is Dr. Don 

 Nicolas Avellaneda; the V ice-President, Dr. 

 Don Mariano Acosta ; and the Ministers com- 

 posing the Cabinet, as follows : Interior, Dr. 

 Don Benjamin Zorrilla; Finance, Dr. Don 

 Victorino de La Plaza; Justice, Public Wor- 

 ship, and Public Instruction, Dr. Don Miguel 

 Goyena ; War and the Navy. Dr. Don Carlos 

 Pellegrini. The Argentine Charge <T Affaires 

 in the United States is Sr. Don Julio Carried 

 The Consul-General (at New York) is Sr. Don 

 Carlos Carranza ; and the Vice-Consul, Mr. F. 

 H. Snyder. 



The Governors of the several provinces 

 were : 



Buenos Ayres Dr. C. Tejedor (May, 1878). 



Minister of the Interior. . J. AlcorU. 



Minister of Finance F. L. Barbln. 



Catamarca M. Molina. 



C6rdoba Dr. A. del Viso. 



Corrientes 



Entre-Eios I>r. R. Febro. 



Jujuy M. Torino. 



La Rioja V. A. Almonacld. 



Mendoza J. Villanueva. 



Salta J. Sola. 



Ban Juan R. Doncel. 



San Luis T. Mendoza. 



Santa Fe 8. de I Hondo. 



Santiago B. Olachea. 



Tucuman F. Helguerm. 



Gran Chaco Territory Lieut -Col. P. G6met 



The following tables of the revenue and ex- 

 penditure of the republic for the year 1878 

 are taken from the report presented to Con- 

 gress by the Minister of Finance in 1879 : 



