ZOOLOaY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 1019 



Physiological Experiments on Organisms of Glairine and 

 Baregine.* — M. L. Olivier has investigated the question of under what 

 form the sulphur-containing organisms of glairine and baregine lose this 

 metalloid. He finds that they consume their intracellular sulphur 

 without oxidizing it. They produce HgS and CNS(NH4) which is a 

 sulphosubstituted derivate of an isomer of urea. This fact, which is 

 absolutely new, seems to assign to sulphur a function of which no 

 example is as yet known. It is possible that this body is capable of 

 replacing oxygen in the transformation of albuminoids into amides, and 

 in a general way, in the combustion of living matter. In a further com- 

 munication I the author gives an account of some further experiments, 

 which show, inter alia, that during life the formation of SOj follows, and 

 does not precede that of HjS. After the death of the organisms the 

 intracellular sulphur may be oxidized, and the reaction is quite different 

 from that which obtains during life. 



* Comptes Rendus, cvi. (1888) pp. 1744-6. f Tom. cit., pp. 1806-9. 



