1895,] Zoology. 753 
strewn on a part of B. Wherever the glukase powder falls on A, dex- 
trine is formed out of the soluble starch, and from this, under the in- 
fluence of the same enzym, glucose is produced. ‘The latter is food for 
the yeast and growth begins at once, but as glucose is not diffusible 
through the gelatine, and as dextrine is not food, the growth of the 
yeast is sharply limited to the spot covered by the enzym, which is but 
slightly diffusible and is itself not food for the yeast. On B there is at 
first no growth even where the glukase falls, but after a time some of 
the dextrine produced on A escapes from the enzym spot and, being 
diffusible, passes through the gelatine without influenceing the im- 
prisoned yeast cells until the glukase spot on B is reached. Here the 
fresh enzym immediately converts the dextrine into glucose, as shown 
by the production of an S. ellipsoideus auxanogram, the yeast spot cor- 
responding in shape not to the area strewn with the enzym, but to so 
much of it as has been entered by the diffusion curve of the dextrine. 
This method was employed to determine what seeds contain glukase 
and to locate it in particular parts. The yeast is much more sensitive 
to minute quantities of glukase than chemical tests or polarized light. 
Glukase occurs in ungerminated maize principally in the horny part 
of the endosperm. It also occurs in abundance in the endosperm of 
sorghum and millet seeds, and is present in the seeds of about a dozen 
families of monocotyledons, i. e., in those having a mealy endosperm. 
Most seeds which are free from endosperm, or in which the endosperm 
is fleshy or horny, do not contain it. It does not occur in ungermina- 
ted wheat, rye or barley. Fresh starch grains outside the plant are 
attacked by glukase just as little as by diastase. Inuline also remains 
unchanged. The product of the action of glukase on maltose is glucose 
pure and simple. Dextrine is less readily converted into glucose than 
is maltose, and soluble starch is still less readily converted. These 
notes are from the third part of a long paper, Ueber Nachweis und 
Verbreitung der Glukase, das Enzym der Maltose, in Centrb. f. Bakt. 
u. Par., Allg., I, 6, 7-8, and 9-10.—Erwin F. SMITE. 
ZOOLOGY. 
The Characters of the Enchytreid Genus Distichopus.— 
In the absence of any information regarding the internal structure 
of the Distichopus silvestris of Leidy, European students of the Oligo- 
