Cuar. V. EFFECTS OF ORGANIC FLUIDS. 83 
exist which are not coagulated by boiling water, but are con- 
verted into soluble peptones. 
On three occasions chopped cabbage-leaves* were boiled in 
distilled water fcr 1 hr. or for 1} hr.; and by decanting the 
decoction after it had been allowed to rest, a pale dirty green 
fluid was obtained. The usual-sized drops were placed on 
thirteen leaves. Their tentacles and blades were inflected after 
4 hrs. to a quite extraordinary degree. Next day the protoplasm 
within the cells of the tentacles was found aggregated in the 
most strongly marked manner. I also touched the viscid secre- 
tion round the glands of several tentacles with minute drops of 
the decoction on the head of a small pin, and they became well 
inflected in a few minutes. The fluid proving so powerful, one 
part was diluted with three of water, and drops were placed on 
the discs of five leaves; and these next morning were so much 
acted on that their blades were completely doubled over. We 
thus see that a decoction of cabbage-leaves is nearly or quite as 
potent as an infusion of raw meat. 
About the same quantity of chopped cabbage-leaves and of 
distilled water, as in the last experiment, were kept in a vessel 
for 20 hrs. in a hot closet, but not heated to near the boiling- 
point. Drops of this infusion were placed on four leaves. One 
of these, after 23 hrs., was much inflected ; a second slightly; a 
third had only the submarginal tentacles inflected; and the 
fourth was not at all affected. The power of this infusion is 
therefore very much less than that of the decoction; and it is 
clear that the immersion of cabbage-leaves for an hour in water 
at the boiling temperature is much more efficient in extracting 
matter which excites Drosera than immersion during many 
hours in warm water. Perhaps the contents of the cells are 
protected (as Schiff remarks with respect to legumin) by the 
walls being formed of cellulose, and that until these are rup- 
tured by boiling-water, but little of the contained albuminous 
matter is dissolved. We know from the strong odour of cooked 
cabbage-leaves that boiling water produces some chemical 
change in them, and that they are thus rendered far more 
digestible and nutritious to man. It is therefore an interesting 
* The leaves of young plants, and the outer leaves of mature 
before the heart is formed, such plants 1°6 per cent. Watts’ ‘Dict 
as were used by me, contain 2°1 of Chemistry, vol. i. p. 653. 
per cent. of albuminous matter, 
