82 DROSERA ROTUNDIPOLIA. [Chap. VL 



day in a few (frops of glycerine. Some of this extract was 

 added to a little hydrochloric acid of various strengths (gen- 

 erally one to 400 of water), and minute cubes of albumen 

 were placed in the mixture.' In two of these trials the cubes 

 were not in the least acted on ; but in the third the experiment 

 was successful. For in a vessel containing two cubes, both 

 were reduced in size in 3 hrs. ; and after 24 hrs. mere streaks 

 of undissolved albumen were left. In a second vessel, con- 

 taining two minute ragged bits of albumen, both were like- 

 wise reduced in size in 3 hrs. and after 24 hrs. completely 

 disappeared. I then added a little weak hydrochloric acid 

 to both vessels, and placed fresh cubes of albumen in them; 

 but these were not acted on. This latter fact is intelligible 

 according to the high authority of Schiff,* who has demon- 

 strated, as he believes, in opposition to the view held by some 

 physiologists, that a certain small amount of pepsin is de- 

 stroyed during the act of digestion. So that if my solution 

 contained, as is probable, an extremely small amount of the 

 ferment, this would have been consumed by the dissolution of 

 the cubes of albumen first given: none being left when the 

 hydrochloric acid was added. The destruction of the fer- 

 ment during the process of digestion, or its absorption after 

 the albumen had been converted into a peptone, will also ac- 

 count for only one out of the three latter sets of exi)eriment8 

 having been successful. 



Digestion of Roast Meat. Cubes of about -^ of an inch 

 (1.27 mm.) of moderately roasted meat were placed on five 

 leaves which became in 12 hrs. closely inflected. After 48 

 hrs. I gently opened one leaf, and the meat now consisted of 

 a minute central sphere, partially digested and surrounded 

 by a thick envelope of transparent viscid fluid. The whole, 

 without being much disturbed, was removed and placed 

 under the microscope. In the central part the transverse 

 striee on the muscular fibres were quite distinct; and it was 

 interesting to observe how gradually they disappeared, when 

 the same fibre was traced into the surrounding fluid. They 

 disappeared by the striae being replaced by transverse lines 



* As a control pxpprlment t>lt8 expectod. was not In the least 



of albumen were nlnceel In the affected nfter two clays, 

 same (rljrcprlne with hydrochloric 'Lecons phys. de la Disres- 



add of the same strenKth; and tlon,' 18U7, torn. il. pp. 114-120. 

 the albumen, as might have been 



