BRIEF CONTRIBUTIONS TO PHYSIOLOGICAL 

 CHEMISTRY.* 



COMMUNICATED BY LAFAYETTE B. MENDEL. 



L On the occurrence of iodine in corals, by LAFAYETTE B. MENDEL. 

 13. Glycogen formation after inulin feeding, by R. NAKASEKO. 



III. The influence of acids on the amylolytic action of saliva, by G. A. 



HANFORD. 



IV. On the connective tissue in muscle, by J. H. GOODMAN. 



I. 



ON THE OCCURRENCE OF IODINE IN CORALS. 

 BY LAFAYETTE B. MENDEL. 



BATJMANN'S discovery of iodine as a normal constituent of 

 the animal body, and Drechsel's investigations on the iodine 

 compounds of a Mediterranean coral have served to direct 

 attention again to the physiological r6le of this element, f 

 Drechsel demonstrated that the horny axial skeleton of Gor- 

 gonia cavolinii which he obtained at Naples contains iodine in 

 organic combination. This skeletal substance, termed gorgonin 

 by him, yielded on decomposition with baryta water a well 

 crystallized iodo-amido acid, corresponding in composition with 

 a moniodo-amidobutyric acid. Drechsel did not regard the 

 latter as a distinct component of the gorgonin, but assumed it 

 to be a characteristic cleavage product of the complex iodine- 

 containing, keratin-like albuminoid of the coral skeleton. The 

 further peculiar fact that the ccenenchyma of the animal con- 

 tains practically no iodine led Drechsel to the interesting con- 

 clusion that Gorgonia cavolinii has a specific iodine metaboli sm 

 which is essential to the building up of the framework of the 



* Reprinted from the Amer. Jour, of Physiol., vol. iv. 

 t Cf. Baumann, Zeitschrift fur physiologische Chemie, 1896, xrl, p. 319. 

 Drechsel, Zeitschrift fur Biologic, 1896, xxxiii, p. 90. 



