TRANSFORMING AND REGENERATING ORGANS 637 
but produce comparatively little fermentation; with little 
oxygen they multiply less but cause a more abundant devel- 
opment of alcohol and CO,. In the liquefaction of the cell- 
walls of the blastomeres of Cisnclahnis or of Infusoria we may 
have the analogue of the increased fermentation in Pasteur’s 
experiment. In the latter we have to deal with a special 
enzyme, the zymase. 
Miescher pointed out that in the salmon a liquefaction of 
muscular tissue occurs, and that the liquid products are util- 
ized for the formation of sexual cells. Miescher was inclined 
to ascribe the liquefaction of the muscle to lack of oxygen. 
He noticed that the liquefaction of the muscle was preceded 
by a reduction in the blood supply of the muscles.’ My own 
and Budgett’s observations agree with Miescher’s views.’ 
It is possible that the processes of histolysis in the meta- 
morphosis of insects are of a similar character, and some 
authors have claimed that the histolysis in this case is 
brought about by a process of asphyxiation. Metschnikoff 
assumes that a phagocytosis plays an important réle in these 
phenomena of histolysis. It is certain that in my experi- 
ments on Ctenolabrus and in Budgett’s experiments on 
Infusoria no phagocytes were present, and it is practically 
impossible that they played a réle in the above-mentioned 
phenomena in Campanularia. I do not think that the lique- 
faction of colloids requires the presence of phagocytes any 
more than the liquefaction of crystals. 
1 Die histochemischen und physiologischen Arbeiten von F. Miescher, Leipzig, Vol. 
I (1897), pp. 94-100. 
2It is possible that in the case of Campanularia the histolytic phenomena do not 
stop with the liquefaction of certain constituents, but that this process is followed by 
hydrolysis. [1903] 
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