A. P. Mathews 467 



sugar was not determined; an osazone was prepared; the fermen- 

 tation test was indecisive. The lecithin itself does not reduce 

 Fehling's solution but only after it has been heated with acid. 

 I heated it for ten hours with 3.5 per cent HC1 and determined 

 the sugar by the reduction of Fehling's solution according to the 

 method of Munson and Walker. This phosphatide also contains 

 sulphuric acid in an ester form like Koch's sulphatide. It con- 

 tained in a single analysis 1.19 per cent of sulphur in an oxidized 

 form. This is in organic combination. The fatty acids are very 

 largely oleic, or a similar acid, having an ether-soluble lead salt, 

 The analysis of this impure phosphatide resulted as follows: 



Glucose (?) 10.51 per cent. 



Fatty acids 46.16 per cent. 



Phosphorus 3.57 per cent. 



Sulphur 1.19 per cent. 



Of the fatty acid approximately 71.35 per cent was recovered 

 as oleic (?) acid. This phosphatide also contains a considerable 

 amount of magnesium, but I did not determine it quantitatively. 



I may mention that, of the total ether-soluble portion of the 

 alcohol-ether extract of these eggs, the lecithin in one case weighed 

 0.6105 gram; the fat, the part not precipitated by acetone, 0.6055 

 gram; so that there are about equal quantities of fat and lecithin. 



SUMMARY. 



Cholesterol is either absent altogether or present in very small 

 amount in the star-fish egg. It could not be positively found in 

 the eggs of Asterias forbesii. It is present in considerable quan- 

 tities in the sea-urchin egg. This difference possibly is correlated 

 with the greater sensitiveness to cytolysis of the star-fish egg. The 

 phosphatide of the star-fish contains about 10 per cent of a re- 

 ducing sugar in firm combination and also sulphuric acid. 



