Feb. 5, [885] 



NA TURE 



their spectra observed. Moreover, by the use of the iris dia- 

 phragm, which is placed below the substage con. I 

 marginal part of the field can be readily cut oft". Another piece 

 of apparatus is indispensable, namely, the compressorium, as by 

 its aid the section is squeezed out thin enough to allow the 

 spectrum to be observed. 



No reagent whatever is required for the detection of the spectra 

 to be described, so that the substances present cannot be altered 

 in any way. 



Afyohcematin. — Physiologists have accepted Kuhne's statement 

 that muscle owes its colour to haemoglobin, but although the 

 majority of voluntary muscles do owe their colour to it, it is 

 accompanied by myohaematin in most cases, and sometimes 

 entirely replaced by it, while in other cases it entirely replaces 

 myohaematin. The heart muscle of every vertebrate animal 

 which I have examined yield- myohsematin, which gives a very 

 beautifully defined spectrum totally distinct from any decompo- 

 sition product of haemoglobin, e.g. methaemoglobin, acid or 

 alkaline haematin, or haematop^rphyrin. All one has to do in 

 order to detect myohaematin is to cut off a bit of heart muscle, 

 put it while fresh in the compressorium, press it down, and 

 observe the spectrum. No reagent whatever is required. The 

 spectrum consists of three bands, two of which are very narrow, 

 >t after the haemoglobin bands have gone when the 

 tissue has been squeezed out to great thinness in the compres- 

 sorium. The bands have been missed by other observers simply 

 becau when the oxyhemoglobin bands are well marked they 

 cover and are merged into the myohsematin bands. The first 

 band of myohsematin occurs just before D, the next two (of 

 great narrowness) are placed between D and E, and two other 

 laint binds may be present nearer violet, of which the first covers 

 E and b, and the other is between /' and F, close to latter line. 

 Their wave-lengths are : 1st band A. 613-596-5, 2nd band A 569- 

 563, 3rd band A 556-549 (heart of dog), and they have been 

 measured in all cases with the same result. I find myohaematin 

 in the heart muscles and some voluntary muscles of the following 



1.— Myohxmatics from Alar muscles of Vespa vulgaris. 2.— Myohae- 

 matics from heart of Lim iv variegatus. 



mammals : — Man, dog, cat, rabbit, *rguinea-pig, hedgehog, 

 sheep, ox, pig, rat and hare. In birds: in pigeon, owl, duck, 

 rkey, and fowl. In reptiles : in green lizard, common 

 take, and fresh-water tortoise. In Batrachians : in 

 toad, frog, salamander, axolotl, and tree-frog. In fishes: in 

 herring, mackerel, tench, roach, eel, plaice, whiting, and cod- 

 fish. 1 But it is also found in Invertebrate-, in which I first 

 detected it. It is found in the muscle from thorax and in leg 

 >1 the following insect genera : — Dytiscus, Hydrophilus, 

 Lucanus, Cerambyx, Creophilas, Staphylin is, Geotrupes, Cara- 

 bus, Coccinella, Musca (three species), l'ipula, Gryllus, Blatta, 

 .hi . Bombus, 1'ieiis, Ennomos, lVc. It also occurs in 

 the cephalo-thoracic muscles of spiders, in the heart of the crab, 

 ind crayfish (and not in their voluntary muscles) ; in 

 the heart and buccal muscles of Arion, Limax, Helix, and other 

 pulmonate mollusks, while in other mollusks it appears to be 

 replaced by haemoglobin in the pharyngeal muscle, as Prof. 

 I 1 lias found out 



I wo attempts have been made to isolate it. In the hist it 

 was got out of the muscle by digesting in pepsine solution, and 

 was slightly changed in the process ; in the second it was gut 

 out of the frozen heart muscle of a rabbit by pressing out the 

 plasma; 2 here it was mixed with traces of haemoglobin, but 

 could be differentiated from it : hence it probably occurs in 

 muscle plasma like muscle-haemoglobin. 



Histohamatin. — This name has been given by me to a cla s 

 of pigments or modifications of the same pigment, which are 

 found widely distributed in the animal kingdom. Myohaematin 

 belongs to them, as can easily be shown. They are found in 

 Mollusks, Arthropods, Echinoderms, and, modified peculiarly, in 

 Ccelenterates. The bands are carefully measured and compared 

 1 These being all the vertebrate animals which I have yet examined. 

 - After suitable precautions had been t£?ken to exclude the infl 1 

 blond, as fu'Iy described in the demon 



with spectra yielded by various organs and tissues of Vertebrates, 

 and no difference is found between those of Vertebrates and In- 

 vertebrates. In order to see these spectra in the higher animals 

 the blood-vessels are washed out with salt solution thoroughly, 

 and then the organs and tissues examined in the manner de- 

 scribed. It is not possible to go into this subject in an abstract, 

 as the facts are too numerous to be compressed into such a small 

 space ; it will suffice to say that the histohaematins are respiratory 

 pigments, as can be proved by oxidising and reducing them in 

 the solid organs. Their bands occupy almost the same place as 

 those of myohaematin, except that the second and third bands of 

 the myohaematin spectrum appear compressed into one in some 

 cases. 



Myohaematin itself is also undoubtedly a respiratory sub- 

 stance. 



Spectrum of the Supra-renal Bodies. — In the supra-renals of 

 man, cat, dog, guinea-pig, rabbit, ox, sheep, pig, and rat, the 

 medulla gives the spectrum of haemochromogen, while the cortex 

 shows that of a histohaematin. Wherever we find haemochro- 

 mogen in a vertebrate body it is probably excretory, and I hive 

 only found it in the bile and in the liver. Hence, and owing to 

 the remarkable darkness of its bands in the medulla of the 

 adrenals, it must be looked upon here as excretory; if so, the 

 function of the adrenals must be (at least in part) to meta- 

 morphose effete haemoglobin or haematin into haemochromogen ; 

 if from disease, or after removal, as in Tizzoni's experiments, the 

 effete pigment is not removed, pigmentation of skin and mucous 

 membrane may take place. The presence of taurocholic acid in 

 the medulla (Vulpian), the resemblance in the structure of the 

 adrenals to that of the liver, and the large lymphatics, with the 

 well-known results of disease of the adrenals in Addison's 

 disease, all go to show that an active metabolic process is taking 

 place in them, and I believe I am justified in concluding that 

 they have a large share in the downward metamorphosis of effete 

 c doming matter, and that these observations will help to throw 

 some light on A<1 I 



SOUTH GEORGIA 



v OME interesting particulars of the geography, climate, &c, 

 of the island of South Georgia have recently been published 

 by the members of the German Expedition which sojourned in 

 I0S3 at the island. They are of the more interest as no scientific 

 expedition had previously visited the island, of which but little 

 therefore is known. The Expedition, in command of Dr. 

 Schrader, took up their quarters at Moltke Hafen, in Royal 

 Bay, which is from four and a half to five miles wide and from 

 six to eight miles long ; here observations were made from Sep- 

 tember 15, 1S82, until September 3, 18S3, when the Expedition 

 left in a German gunboat. The 8472 observations made during 

 this period on the temperature, air-pressure, moisture, wind, 

 ice, are of great importance. 



The island is by its position (54 31' S. Iat. and 36 5' W. 

 long.) not an Antarctic island in the strict sense of the word, 

 but its appearance stamps it as such — Royal Bay being sur- 

 rounded by mountains, with enormous glaciers from 900 to 1200 

 feet in height, which further inland rise to 6000 or 7000 feet. 

 This circumstance may give some idea of the climate, and it is 

 therefore not surprising to learn that the mean temperature of 

 the whole period of observation was only 35 F. ; for February, 

 the warmest month, 42 , and for the coldest (June) 26°'6. No 

 single month was free from frost, and 30 per cent, of the 

 hours of observation showed a temperature below freezing-point. 

 In July the minimum-thermometer registered 26°*2, and in 

 February the maximum-thermometer 57°'2, the range of tem- 

 perature amounting to 31°. Clear days occurred in the winter 

 only, the total number being 8 ; whereas the total of cloudy 

 days was 127 ; the latter were less frequent in July and August. 

 During December not a single day was clear, and the total 

 number of hours of clear sky was only 269, against 3302 which 

 were cloudy, viz. 38-9 per cent, of the total. Consequently 

 there was much rain and snow, particularly in November and 

 December, which had only one dry day each. Most snow fell 

 in March and least in May. Even the warmest month, February, 

 had 13 days with snow, while the coldest, June, had four days 

 with rain. It hailed on 19 days, principally in December ; 

 there were 75 days of fog, but it did not last long. As regards 

 winds and storms, the observations of the Expedition seem to 

 indicate that the neighbourhood of Cape Horn is not quite so 

 stormy as is generally believed. At South Georgia there were 



