33 



Appendices to Second Annual Report 



some animals, as the cod, the presence of well-marked glands in the 

 walls of these organs is so apparent as to point at once to the view that 

 in these animals at least they are something more than absorbing organs. 

 It is important to remember that the function of secretion does not 

 exclude that of absorption ; both functions may go on simultaneously. 



The pyloric appendages of the herring, when extracted with glycerine 

 or a 1 per cent, watery solution of sodium carbonate or spirit solution, 

 yield an extract which has distinct tryptic properties. The glycerine 

 extract rapidly dissolves fibrin in the presence of a 1 per cent, solution of 

 sodium carbonate. Thus in the herring we have evidence of the 

 existence of ' trypsin ' in the pyloric appendages. 



I am led to the belief that the pyloric appendages of the herring also 

 contain a diastatic ferment. In making experiments with the tryptic 

 ferment, one must be careful to prevent putrefaction ; and this, as was 

 pointed out by Kiihne, is best done by the addition of thymol. 



The Bile of the herring is a golden brown fluid, neutral or faintly 

 alkaline reaction. Like the bile of mammals, it contains a diastatic fer- 

 ment, as shown by its action upon starch. It does not act upon 

 proteids. 



The Liver. — The experiments I have made were conducted especially 

 to ascertain the probable amount of sugar contained in this organ, and 

 whether the amount of sugar differed according as the fish was or was 

 not digesting at the moment it was killer! . Assuming, as in the case of 

 mammals, that any glycogen present in the liver would be converted into 

 grape-sugar, as the fish did not reach me until several hours after their 

 death, on making a watery extract of the liver, I naturally expected to 

 obtain abundant evidence of the existence of sugar in the extract. The 

 opposite was the result. In the livers of several herrings so extracted, I 

 had great difficulty in convincing myself of the presence of sugar by 

 means of Fehling's test. The livers I used first of all, were taken from 

 animals shortly before the period of spawning, and whose crops and 

 stomachs were empty. At first I was inclined to believe that the absence 

 of food from the stomach might explain the traces of sugar in the liver, 

 so I selected the liver of several herrings whose stomachs and crops con- 

 tained food. In this case also I obtained only small quantities of sugar. 

 The relation of the amount of sugars or glycogen in the liver of fishes 

 to the food and other conditions is obviously one deserving of more 

 extended examination, more especially as very variable results were 

 obtained in the cod and skate. The fact that the roe and milt were 

 undergoing such a great development may have influenced the amount 

 of the carbohydrates in the liver, as it is a well-established fact that 

 rapidly developing tissues require a larger amount of carbohydrates. 

 "Whether the carbohydrates in the liver are or are not influenced by the 

 state of the reproductive organs of the herring, i.e., whether it is in the 

 ' matie ' stage or in the full condition, when the roe and milt are rapidly 

 enlarging and filling the abdominal cavity, and drawing upon the stored- 

 up fatty and other tissues for pabulum to sustain their growth and deve- 

 lopment, it is quite certain that the fatty accumulations between the 

 muscles and those around the pyloric caeca and about the intestine, gra- 

 dually disappear, and the flesh becomes 1 poorer.' 



I trust that opportunities will occur during the ensuing season for 

 determining these and other points. 



The intestine of the herring was not subjected to examination, but this 

 I hope to accomplish as soon as opportunity affords. 



