SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 209 
This solution is filtered off from the flocculent precipitate, 
formed by the addition of the alcohol. It is evaporated 
nearly to dryness, and the dissolved matter again taken 
up by water; the aqueous solution so obtained reduces 
Fehling’s solution. This series of reactions is charac- 
teristic of mucine and chondrine, since glycogen or other 
carbohydrates capable of yielding sugar on treatment with | 
dilute acid, and consequently reducing Fehling’s solution, 
are absent. | 
Further the addition of crystals of magnesium sulphate 
in excess to the aqueous solution of the styles, gives an 
abundant precipitate which contains practically all the 
proteid matter present in the solution. This behaviour 
with magnesium sulphate, which agrees with that of a 
globulin, and the reaction with dilute acid, indicate the 
nature of the substance. It is allied to, but apparently 
not identical with mucine. 
Leaving out of account the older views concerning the 
function of the crystalline style, such as that of von 
Heide, that it was an accessory genital organ, or that it 
was a skeletal structure (Carus and Garner), or the 
representative of the radula of the Glossophora, and 
consequently a masticatory organ (Meckel), only two 
hypotheses as to its nature seem to survive modern 
investigation. Hazay* as the result of a series of observa- 
tions and experiments, concluded that it represented a 
store of reserve food material, resulting from the meta- 
morphosed excess of food matters taken in during the warm 
season, and lodged in the pyloric caecum to be utilized by 
the animal during periods of hibernation. Practically the 
same conclusion was arrived at by Haselofft from a series 
* Die Mollusken-Fauna von Budapest II. Biologischen Theil. Cassel, 1881. 
+ Ueber den Krystallstiel der Muscheln nach Untersuchungen verschiedener 
Arten der Kieler Bucht. Osterode, 1888, 
