120 DROSERA ROTUNDIFOLIA. 
Cuap. Vi. 
stimulant as fresh gluten, and does not much injure 
the glands; and we further learn that it can be di- 
gested quickly and completely by the secretion. 
Globulin or Crystallin.—-This substance was kindly prepared 
for me from the lens of the eye by Dr. Moore, and consisted of 
hard, colourless, transparent fragments. It is said* that globulin 
ought to “swell up in water and dissolve, for the most part 
forming a gummy liquid ;” but this did not occur with the above 
fragments, though kept in water for four days. Particles, some 
moistened with water, others with weak hydrochloric acid,. 
others soaked in water for one or two days, were placed on 
nineteen leaves. Most of these leaves, especially those with the 
long soaked particles, became strongly inflected in a few hours. 
The greater number re-expanded after three or four days; but 
three of the leaves remained inflected during one, two, or three 
additional days. Hence some exciting matter must have been 
absorbed; but the fragments, though perhaps softened in a 
greater degree than those kept for the same time in water, 
retained all their angles as sharp as ever. As globulin is an 
albuminous substance, I was astonished at this result; and my 
object being to compare the action of the secretion with that ot 
gastric juice, I asked Dr. Burdon Sanderson to try some of the 
globulin used by me. He reports that “it was subjected to a 
liquid containing 0°2 per cent. of hydrochloric acid, and about 
1 per cent. of glycerine extract of the stomach of a dog. It was 
then ascertained that this liquid was capable of digesting 1-31 
of its weight of unboiled fibrin in 1 hr.; whereas, during the 
hour, only 0°141 of the above globulin was dissolved. In both 
cases an excess of the substance to be digested was subjected to 
the liquid.”t We thus see that within the same time less than 
one-ninth by weight of globulin than of fibrin was dissolved ; 
and bearing in mind that pepsin with acids of the acetic series 
has only about one-third of the digestive power of pepsin with 
hydrochloric acid, it is not surprising that the fragments of 
* Watts’ ‘Dict. of Chemistry,’ 
yol ii. p. 874. 
+ I may add that Dr. Sander- 
son prepared some fresh globulin 
by Schmidt’s method, and of this 
0°865 was dissolved within the 
same time, namely, one hour; so 
that it was far more soluble than 
that which I used, though less 
soluble than fibrin, of which, as 
we have seen, 1°31 was dissolved. 
I wish that I had tried on Dro- 
sera globulin prepared by this 
method. 
