1872.] 



Mr. E. Ray Lankester on Hemoglobin. 



77 



dite aculeata, being absent from the muscular tissue and from the 

 blood in this animal, and absent from the muscular tissue generally 

 in all other Annelids as far as yet examined. 

 4. Diffused in the substance of nervous tissue. 



a. In the chain of nerve-ganglia of Aphrodite aculeata. 



The significance of these observations depends to a large extent on the 

 negative results given by very numerous observations not recorded here. 

 I have taken every opportunity, during some years past, of examining 

 coloured animal matters with the spectroscope, and especially where there- 

 could be a suspicion of the presence of Haemoglobin *. Thus, where the 

 absence of Haemoglobin is generally stated above, it must be understood 

 that examination has been made for it in such cases as have been acces- 

 sible. I have found that many cases of red coloration of a tissue or liquid, 

 which might be supposed to be due to Haemoglobin, are certainly not so, 

 such red-coloured matter failing to give the characteristic bands of that 

 body, and, as a rule, giving no detached characteristic bands. Such are 

 the red pigments occurring in the blood-corpuscles of Sipunculus, in the 

 tissues of many Annelids, in Echinodermata, in compound Tunicata, sur- 

 rounding the intestine of Salpa, in the foot and mantle of many Mollusca, 

 also in their nerve-ganglia and other parts, in the chromatophores of 

 Cephalopoda, in certain Infusoria. On the other hand, among coloured 

 bodies not suggesting Haemoglobin, I have found an equally large number 

 devoid of characteristic spectra, but some few which exhibit the remark- 

 able phenomenon of detached definite bands of absorption, which enables 

 them to be certainly characterized and recorded. Such are : — a chiorophyl- 

 like body occurring in Sjpongilla, in Hydra viridis, arid in Mesostomum viride ; 

 Chlorocruorin, which takes the place of Haemoglobin in the vascular fluid 

 of the Chloremiens and some species of Sabella ; Stentorin, giving the in- 

 tense blue colour to the Infusorian Stentor cceruleus, and possessing a very 

 marked and peculiar pair of absorption-bands. With one single exception, 

 it appears, from the examination of a great number of cases, both among 

 Vertebrates and Invertebrates, that coloured bodies which may be supposed 

 to be purely pigmentary in their function do not give detached absorption- 

 bands. The exception is the red colouring-matter named Turacin by 

 Professor Church, discovered by him in the feathers of birds of the family 

 Musophagidae, which has other properties quite unusual in pigmentary 

 bodies. In an examination of a large number of birds' feathers, red, yel- 

 low, blue, and green, I failed to obtain detached absorption-bands, as 



* I may state that I have not hitherto made any observations on the colouring- 

 matters of the biliary secretion in Invertebrata and the lower Vertebrates, excepting in 

 their fresh condition. The use of the spectroscope, combined with chemical reagents, 

 would no doubt lead to interesting results in that field, since a variety of substances 

 giving characteristic absorption-spectra have been obtained from the manipulation of 

 mammalian bile-pigment. 



