﻿FIELD AND FOREST. 85 



delicate precipitate forms, which is in great part composed of starch- 

 granules. The microscopic and polariscopic examination of this pre- 

 cipitate proves, beyond all question, that starch granules are present. 

 This fact, says M. Dareste, adds to the analogy which is thought to exist 

 between the egg of animals and the seed of plants." 



Dr. Lavvson, also editor of this journal, calls the discovery of starch 

 in the yolk of the egg a remarkable fact, but the discovery of amyla- 

 ceous matter in blood, the same gentleman, in 1876, considers a 

 matter unworthy of consideration, * and questions not the methods 

 ofM. Dareste, covering a period of more than three months, who used a 

 series of vessels and liquids, all of which were necessarily exposed to 

 the atmosphere. If my experiments on blood, which were performed 

 within a few seconds after it is taken from a living body, are supposed 

 to be imperfect, what shall we say of the unbounded faith of Dr. Law- 

 son in M. Dareste's discovery? It verily appears like straining at a 

 gnat and swallowing a camel. 



Chemists, contemporary with Cuvier, held that nitrogen was not an 

 essential constituent of plant-life. It is now established that nitrogen 

 is as essential a constituent of vegetable, as animal living matter. 



"Starchy substances, cellulose and sugar, once supposed to be ex- 

 clusively confined to plants, are now known to be regular and normal 

 products of animals. Amylaceous and saccharine substances are largely 

 manufactured, even by the highest animals ; cellulose is wide spread as 

 a constituent of the skeletons of the lower animals; and it is probable 

 that amyloid substances are universally present in the animal organism, 

 though not in the precise form of starch, f (Huxley, in the April number 

 of Popular Science Monthly, 1876.) In all candor, is it not fair to 

 presume that Mr. Huxley states the precise condition of the knowledge 

 attained by European scientists in relation to all the discoveries made 

 to date, relating to these questions. 



In my first article J on cellulose the following occurs: "But it 

 has been demonstrated that parts of certain animals, as the mantle of 

 Tunicata, consists of cellulose. It may therefore be reasonable to ex- 

 pect, as a necessary consequence, the presence of analogous substances 



* Since writing the above I have tested a portion of the white and yolk of a boiled 

 egg and have found what appears to be structural cellulose in both, and also a sub- 

 stance resembling starchy matter, the experiment occupying about five minutes. 



f The words in this quotation have been italicised by myself. 



\ Monthly Report of the Department of Agriculture for July, 1875, P a g e 3 J 6- 



