80 A IMTTR 0\ r.fiUS. 



it shows no blood disks. They seem for the most part, if not dis- 

 persed, to have run together, and lost their individuality. 



Eggs now and then are met with which appear to have been 

 smeared more or less with blood of the ordinary colour on the 

 exterior. The daubing seems quite fresh and can be veiy easily 

 wiped off, as is indeed done by dealers in eggs and by others, 

 when they find such unsightly marks upon them. The first egg 

 of the pullet, or the eggs of hens in the autumn, may be found 

 so marked. No doubt this is blood wliich comes from the lining 

 membrane of the sphincter ani which is abraded at the time of 

 the final and forcible expulsion of the egg fi'om the body of the 

 bird. Such blood lies upon the mucous coating given to the egg 

 during its sojourn in the cloaca, and tliis coating separates it 

 from the fresh calcareous shell and liinders it from being modi- 

 fied by the latter. Moreover, fresh human blood smeared over 

 a fresh egg docs not undergo any alteration. In neither of these 

 cases, however, are the circumstances the same as in the case of 

 the operations going on within the o^'iduct of the living bird, in 

 which the blood is mingled hot with the nascent and fluid calca- 

 reous salts. 



" Chemistry sliows tliat the egg spots, indeed, arc mainly com- 

 posed of chlorophyll, and that blood, as such, cannot be said to 

 be present in them ; but then this chlorophyll is identical with 

 that which is obtainable in large quantity from tlie bile of the 

 Ox and the Peewit ; and again, this latter is identical with the 

 chloropliyll existing so largely in plants, thus demonstrating that, 

 in regard to this substance, there is a more close alliance be- 

 tween animals and plants tlian is generally acknowledged. 



"Now liorzclius* and others liave stated tliat chlorophyll, 



• HerzeliuV CliPinislry, Vol. V., p. '214, in which ho reconl!* his hist ami most careful 

 FMearchi-s into the nature of hilc. " La matlrrc colorantc <ie la hilo ac niotauiorpliosc avcc 

 la memo facilitt^ (|uc la bilino. Cette matibre n'cHt pas celle qui CHt decrite dans les 

 KIdmcns do Chiinie touB lo nom dc liilivcniine. Ccllc-ci ne constituc pas un dcs <fl<$- 

 mons de U Idle fralche ct nainc; quand cllo se trouve dans la bile frulche cllc est un 

 ]>roduit morhido. Nous no roniiaitrions pas In matitTo qui hi coloro, h cause de la rnpiditi^ 

 ave*' loqut'llt" ellc se inetaniorph(>Hi> pendant i|u 'un ranalysc. Un des produit>< de uictii. 

 tnorphoM qu'ello en(f»'n<lre fst Ic chloiophyllo. 11 faut cntit'remcnt r^jotcr Ic nom de 

 biUvcrdlne, puis(|u'il est pmuvo que In matlrrc colorante vertc de la bile est Idcntiquc 

 •Tec lo rhlorf»phyllc." Berzollus then pro|>08Cs to mil this motnniorphoscd colouring' 

 agent of the bile rholepyrrhlnc. orange red Mle. boraute tliii Is Its natural healthy oolour. 



