440 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVI. No. 1192 



ago and called by a less provincial name, tlie 

 " Pomologie Frangaise." 



F. A. W. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



COMPARISON OF THE CATALASE CONTENT OF 



THE BREAST MUSCLE OF V/ILD PIGEONS 



AND OF BANTAM CHICKENS 



It is now generally accepted that the energy 

 for muscular work is derived from oxidation 

 of the food materials, although physiologists 

 are not agreed as to the means by which the 

 body accomplishes this oxidation at such a 

 low temperature as 39° C, the temperature of 

 the body. 



The present investigation was carried out 

 to determine if catalase, an enzyme which lib- 

 erates oxygen from hydrogen peroxide or from 

 an organic peroxide comparable in structure 

 to hydrogen peroxide, is greater in amount in 

 the breast muscles of wild pigeons accus- 

 tomed to flying than it is in the breast muscle 

 of bantam chickens not so accustomed; if the 

 catalase content of the breast muscles of the 

 pigeons would be decreased by decreasing the 

 amount of work done by these muscles, and if 

 it would be increased in the breast muscles of 

 the chickens by increasing the amount of work 

 done. 



After several wild pigeons and bantam 

 chickens had been washed luitil free of blood 

 by the use of large quantities of 0.9 per cent, 

 sodium chloride, as was indicated by the fact 

 that the wash water gave no test for catalase, 

 the breast muscles were removed and ground 

 up separately in a hashing machine. One 

 gram of this material was added to 50 c.c. of 

 hydrogen peroxide in a bottle at 22° 0., and 

 as the oxygen gas was liberated it was con- 

 ducted through a rubber tube to an inverted 

 burette previously filled with water. After the 

 volume of oxygen gas, thus collected in ten 

 minutes, was reduced to standard atmospheric 

 pressure the resulting volume was taken as a 

 measure of the amount of catalase in the 

 gram of material. It was found that one gram 

 of the breast muscle of the wild pigeons liber- 

 ated on an average, 98 c.c. of oxygen, while 

 that of the bantam chickens liberated only 

 about 8 c.c, hence, the amount of catalase in 



the breast muscle of the wild pigeons is much 

 greater than that of the bantam chickens. 



Several wild pigeons were confined for three 

 weeks in individual small cages so that they 

 could not use their breast muscles in flying, 

 while several bantam chickens were made to 

 run and fly until they were almost exhausted 

 once a day for fifteen days. The catalase of 

 the breast muscles of these pigeons and chick- 

 ens was determined as in the preceding. It 

 was found that confinement decreased the cata- 

 lase content of the breast muscles of the pi- 

 geons by about 40 per cent., while exercise 

 increased that of the breast muscles of the ban- 

 tam chickens by almost 25 per cent. 



The fact that an increase or decrease in the 

 amount of work, and hence in oxidation in a 

 muscle, is accompanied by a corresponding in- 

 crease or decrease in the amount of catalase, 

 would seem to suggest that catalase may play 

 a role in the oxidative processes of the body. 



W. E. Surge 

 Physiological Laboratory of the 

 University of Illinois 



cilia in the arthropoda 

 That cilia are absent in the Arthropoda is 

 an assumption which has crept into our 

 zoological literature. Thus, Adam Sedgwick 

 in his "Student's Text-Book of Zoology," Vol. 

 III., 1909, pp. 316-317, says: "These ducts 

 in the female^ retain a ciliated lining 

 (GafFron), the only known instance of the oc- 

 currence of a ciliated tract among the Arthro- 

 poda." Then again, we read in Parker and 

 Haswell's "Text-Book of Zoology," Vol. I., 

 (revised edition), 1910, p. 526, as follows: "Ar- 

 thropods are also characterized by the almost 

 universal absence of cilia." Kingsley, on page 

 35Y of his revised edition of Hertwig's " Man- 

 ual of Zoology," 1912, makes the following 

 assertion concerning cilia in the Arthropoda : 

 " The entire absence of cilia is noteworthy. 

 Ciliated cells have never been found in ar- 

 thropods." Still another zoologist, J. Arthur 

 Thomson in the fifth, revised edition of his 



1 Sedgwick is discussing duets in the female re- 

 productive organs of Peripatus. 



