LlCHENASE IN THE DIGESTIVE TRACT OF INVERTEBRATES. 59 



(The bundle of His and its two main divisions are supplied chiefly 

 by branches from the right coronary artery.) 



2. All five cases had a widely disseminated patchy sclerosis. 

 The one case which did not belong to the atherosclerotic group 

 was aged twenty and had no known etiology for the interstitial 

 myocarditis except a recent grippe with cardiac disturbance. 



3. The pathological changes, especially the sclerosis, predomi- 

 nate in the endocardial and subendocardial layers, i. e., in the 

 region of the Purkinje network, as compared with the outer two 

 thirds of the ventricular musculature. 



4. These changes were grossly more marked in the left ventricle 

 than in the right. 



Experiments with the use of two galvanometers have been 

 planned to test out our tentative suggestion that the above men- 

 tioned changes in the electrocardiogram are evidence of a serious 

 conduction disturbance in the tissues beyond the termination of 

 the right and left chief branches of the atrioventricular bundle. 



37 (1215) 



The occurrence of lichenase in the digestive tract of invertebrates. 



By Howard B. Lewis and Minna E. Jewell. 



[From the Laboratory of Physiological Chemistry of the University of 



Illinois, Urbana.] 



A reducing sugar identified as glucose by the formation of the 

 characteristic osazone was produced from lichenin (purified carbo- 

 hydrate and crude extract of Iceland moss) by the action of 

 extracts of the hepatopancreas or alimentary canal of twenty 

 species of invertebrates, representing the following phyla; Porifera, 

 Annelida, Echinodermata, Mollusca, Arthropoda, and Tunicata. 

 No evidence of a lichenin-splitting enzyme was observed in twelve 

 species of vertebrates, embracing the following classes: Pisces, 

 Amphibia, Reptilia, Aves, and Mammalia. The activity of the 

 preparations tested was in every case controlled by tests for an 

 amylase, which was invariably found to be present. Extracts of 

 muscle tissue of the crustaceans could not split lichenin. The 



