. III. BLADDER OF THE OX. 69 



ous solution or pure water. Yet it should be mentioned, 

 that when the inner snrface of the membrane is in contact 

 with the albuminous solution placed outside the instrument, 

 the diminution of height is less than when the position is 

 reversed ; and that the contrary takes place when this solu- 

 tion is in contact with the external surface of the mem- 

 brane. 



Lastly, with alcohol and pure water there is endosmose 

 from the water to the alcohol, as in most cases ; but the 

 elevation is sometimes 24 millimetres, sometimes 59 milli- 

 metres, when the external surface of the membrane is in 

 contact with the alcohol, and sometimes 26, or 37, milli- 

 metres in the reverse arrangement. 



Condition of the Membranes. Some differences, as ob- 

 vious as those observed when using fresh membranes, dis- 

 appear entirely, or nearly so, when we employ membranes 

 dried or altered by a more or less advanced state of putre- 

 faction. We have not much varied the experiments proper 

 for determining the influence of the condition of desiccation 

 and putrid alteration of membranes, and we intend here- 

 after to resume our examination of this subject. It is, how- 

 ever, certain that when employing the ordinary liquids, and 

 interposing between them and pure water the dried bladders 

 of a pig and an ox, which have been moistened before the 

 experiment, so as to enable them to be applied to the en- 

 dosmometer, that there is either no difference in the eleva- 

 tion of the liquids in the two tubes, even after several hours 

 whatever be the position of the surfaces of the membrane ; 

 or a very slight difference in the instrument, in which the 

 internal surface of the bladder is towards the interior of the 

 endosmometer, sometimes in the other one. When em- 

 ploying bladders which have been left for some hours in 

 water, we occasionally observe a certain regularity of effects, 

 as with fresh bladders ; but if we employ them very wet, 



