Cuar. VILJ DIGESTION. 87 
that cubes of the same cartilage, kept in watcr for the same 
length of time, were not in the least affected. 
During a more favourable season, moderately sized bits of 
the skinned ear of a cat, which includes cartilage, areolar 
and elastic tissue, were placed on three Icaves. Some of the 
glands were touched with saliva, which caused prompt in- 
flection. Two of the leaves began to re-expand after three 
days, and the third on the fifth day. The fluid residue left on 
their discs was now examined, and consisted in one case of 
perfectly transparent, viscid. matter; in the other two cases, 
it contained some elastic tissue and apparently remnants of 
half digested areolar tissue. 
Fibro-Cartilage (from between the vertebre of the tail of a 
sheep). Moderately sized and small bits (the latter about 
vy of an inch) were placed on nine leaves. Some of these 
were well and some very little inflected. In the latter case 
the bits were dragged over the discs, so that they were well 
bedaubed with the secretion, and many glands thus irritated. 
All the leaves re-expanded after only two days; so that they 
were but little excited by this substance. The bits were not 
liquefied, but were certainly in an altered condition, being 
swollen, much more transparent, and so tender as to disin- 
tegrate very easily. My son Francis prepared some artificial 
gastric juice, which was proved efficient by quickly dis- 
solving fibrin, and suspended portions of the fibro-cartilage 
init. These swelled and became hyaline, exactly like those 
exposed to the secretion of Drosera, but were not dissolved. 
This result surprised me much, as two physiologists were of 
opinion that fibro-cartilage would be easily digested by 
gastric juice. I therefore asked Dr. Klein to examine the 
specimens; and ‘he reports that the two which had been 
subjected to artificial gastric juice were “in that state of 
digestion in which we find connective tissue when treated 
with an acid, viz. swollen, more or less hyaline, the fibrillar 
bundles having become homogeneous and lost their fibrillar 
structure.” In the specimens which had been left on the 
leaves of Drosera, until they re-expanded, “parts were 
altered, though only slightly so, in the same manner as those 
subjected to the gastric juice, as they had become more 
transparent, almost hyaline, with the fibrillation of the 
bundles indistinct.” Fibro-cartilage is therefore acted on in 
nearly the same manner by gastric juice and by the secretion 
of Drosera. 
