TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 1077 
the mechanical actions, the construction itself of the protoplasm, that appears as a 
wonderful machinery built up with molecules of active albumen—all this appears 
as mysterious as heretofore. 
[For details see ‘ Die Chemische Kraftquelle im Lebenden Protoplasma.’ I. A. 
- Finsterlin: Munich, 1882.) 
3. A Comparative View of the Albuwminous Substances contained in the 
Blood of Vertebrate and Invertebrate Animals. By W.D.Hatursurtoy, 
M.D., B.Sc., M.R.C.P. 
Introduction. General remarks on proteids; the division of blood into cor- 
puscles and blood plasma. Lymph and hemolymph. 
A. The proteids contained in the corpuscles. Hemoglobin. 
B. The proteids contained in the plasma. This comprised the greater part of 
the paper. 
lie The globulins; fibrinogen, paraglobulin, hemoglobin, heemocyanin. 
2. The albumens. ‘The varieties of serum albumen. 
The differences between these two classes of proteids, and the methods of 
separating them employed from the time of Denis to the present day. 
The part each plays in the formation of fibrin. The differences noted in these 
bodies in various classes of vertebrate and invertebrate animals. In considering 
the vertebrata, special stress will be laid on the differences observed in the serum 
albumen of warm and cold blooded animals. 
Among inyertebrata the class of Crustacea will be most fully considered. 
Heemocyanin, its composition, properties, distribution, and function. The clot in 
inyertebrata—is it a mere coalescence of cells or plasmodium, or is it due to the 
formation of fibrin as in vertebrates? Experiments in support of the latter view 
were quoted. 
4, On the Striated Muscles in the Gills of Fishes. 
By Dr. J. A. McWiuam. 
There is present in the gills of fishes a comparatively large amount of muscular 
substance, and this substance assumes a somewhat unexpected form—that of 
transversely-striated muscle instead of the non-striated tissue which one might be 
more ready to expect in such a situation. Striated muscle exists in the gills of all 
the fishes I have examined—hoth in Elasmobranchs and in Teleostean fishes, 
though the relations of the muscular structures are not identical in these two 
orders. There are two situations in which muscle exists in the gill. 
In both Elasmobranchs and Teleosteans a band of muscle entering the branchial 
arch at its dorsal attachment passes along the arch more or less parallel to its long 
axis and lying towards its pharyngeal aspect. As this muscular band approaches 
the ventral extremity of the arch, it thins off and ends, Muscular tissue exists in 
another situation in the gills—between the two rows of filaments borne by each 
branchial arch. The inner borders of these filaments are united to one another 
in Teleosteans by a considerable amount of connective tissue, and in this tissue 
lies an extensive series of muscular bundles. The muscular fibres arise from the 
cartilage of the branchial arch or from the surrounding connective tissue, and pass 
outwards between the branchial filaments to end in a slender tendon which is 
inserted into the point of junction of the sheaths of the two adjacent filaments. 
In the skate the muscular bundles arising from the branchial cartilage are not 
inserted as in the Teleosteans, e.g., salmon and eel, but pass outwards in the 
partitions which separate the branchial compartments, and finally become con- 
tinuous with the muscular tissue lying beneath the integument which lines the 
exterior of the branchial chamber. 
The gill-muscles are innervated by the vagus. Stimulation of the vagus nerve 
causes contraction of the muscles referred to; this leads to a movement of each gill 
as a whole, and also an erecting movement of the gill filaments in Teleosteans at 
least. 
