Cuap. VI. DIGESTION. 93 
additional day the angles of the cubes were dissolved and 
rounded ;* but the cubes were too large, so that the leaves 
were injured, and after seven days one died and the others 
were dying. Albumen which has been kept for four or five 
days, and which, it may be presumed, has begun to decay 
slightly, seems to act more quickly than freshly boiled eggs. 
As the latter were generally used, I often moistened them 
with a little saliva, to make the tentacles close more 
quickly. 
Hayeriment 2.—A cube of 7, of an inch (i.e. with each side 
jy of an inch, or 2°54 mm., in length) was placed on a leaf, and 
after 50 hrs. it was converted into a sphere about 3; of an inch 
(1905 mm.) in diameter, surrounded by perfectly transparent 
fluid. After ten days the leaf re-expanded, but there was still 
left on the disc a minute bit of albumen now rendered trans- 
parent. More albumen had been given to this leaf than could 
be dissolved or digested. 
Experiment 3—Two cubes of albumen of 4, of an inch 
(1:27 mm.) were placed on two leaves. After 46 hrs. every 
atom of one was dissolved, and most of the liquefied matter 
was absorbed, the fluid which remained being in this, as in all 
other cases, very acid and viscid. The other cube was acted 
on at a rather slower rate. 
Experiment 4.—Two cubes of albumen of the same size as 
the last were placed on two leaves, and were converted in 
50 hrs. into two large drops of transparent fluid; but when 
these were removed from beneath the inflected tentacles, and 
viewed by reflected light under the microscupe, fine streaks of 
white opaque matter could be seen in the one, and traces of 
similar streaks in the other. ‘The drops were replaced on the 
leaves, which re-expanded after 10 days; and now nothing 
was left except a very little transparent acid fluid. 
Lxperiment 5.—This experiment was slightly varied, so that 
the albumen might be more quickly exposed to the action of the 
secretion. Two cubes, each of about J, of an inch (635 mm.), 
were placed on the same leaf, and two similar cubes on another 
* In all my numerous experi- 
ments on the digestion of cubes 
of albumen, the angles and edges 
were invariably first rounded. 
Now, Schiff states ( ‘Lecons 
phys. de la Digestion, vol. ii. 
1867, p. 149) that this is charac- 
teristic of the digestion of albu- 
men by the gastric juice of ani- 
mals. On the other hand, he 
remarks, “les dissolutions, en 
chimie, ont lieu sur toute la sur- 
face des corps cn contact avce 
Vagent dissolvant.” 
