130 DROSERA ROTUNDIFOLIA. Cuap. VI 
failed to digest fresh gluten, apparently from its 
injuring the glands, though some was absorbed. Raw 
meat, unless in very small bits, and large pieces of 
albumen, &c., likewise injure the leaves, which seem 
to suffer, like animals, from a surfeit. I know not 
whether the analogy is a real one, but it is worth 
notice that a decoction of cabbage leaves is far more 
exciting and probably nutritious to Drosera than an 
infusion made with tepid water; and boiled cabbages 
are far more nutritious, at least to man, than the un- 
cooked leaves. The most striking of all the cases, 
though not really more remarkable than many others, 
is the digestion of so hard and tough a substance as 
cartilage. The dissolution of pure phosphate of lime, 
of bone, dentine, and especially enamel, seems won- 
derful ; but it depends merely on the long-continued 
secretion of an acid; and this is secreted for a longer 
time under these circumstances than under any others. 
It was interesting to observe that as long as the acid 
was consumed in dissolving the phosphate of lime, no 
true digestion occurred; but that as soon as the bone 
was completely decalcified, the fibrous basis was at- 
tacked and liquefied with the greatest ease. The 
twelve substances above enumerated, which are com- 
pletely dissolved by the secretion, are likewise dis- 
solved by the gastric juice of the higher animals; 
and they are acted on in the same manner, as shown 
by the rounding of the angles of albumen, and more 
especially by the manner in which the transverse strice 
of the fibres of muscle disappear. 
The secretion of Drosera and gastric juice were 
both able to dissolve some element or impurity out of 
the globulin and hematin employed by me. ‘The 
secretion also dissolved something out of chemically 
