DR. C. A. MAC MUNN ON - THE CHROMATOLOGY OF ACTINIAE. 
G45 
acquired a green colour. If red portions of Actinise were removed with the green ones, 
then I could sometimes see hsematoporphyrin-like bands in the solution obtained by 
the action of alcohol and sulphuric acid upon them, but if the green coloured parts 
alone were treated in this manner the resulting solution showed no bands. On 
treating the solution so prepared on a white dish with nitric acid the blue, violet, red, 
and yellow colours of Gmelin’s reaction were successively and distinctly seen ; and if 
the solution was placed in a glass-vessel and its spectrum observed, the very 
characteristic bands which accompany the colour-changes of this reaction were 
distinctly visible. But a purer solution of biliverdin is obtained by extracting the 
integument after the above treatment with alcohol; this purely green solution now 
absorbs more of the red end and transmits green intensified, as shown in the map, 
spectrum 14, Chart I., which is quite free from absorption bands, except a very 
feeble shading before F. Treated on a white dish with nitric acid the green, blue, 
violet, red, and yellow stages of Gmelin’s reaction are clearly seen. If placed in a 
test tube and examined before the slit of the spectroscope, and nitric acid added, as 
the colour changes a band appears before D and one at F, then a band also appears 
after D, the last fades away, then that before D fades away, and finally that at F. No 
other pigment but biliverdin behaves in this manner, as 1 have previously shown.'" 
It is no easy matter to read the bands in the case of Gmelin’s reaction, they 
disappear so soon, but I believe the following are fairly accurate, for the above 
solution :—the 1st band is about X 623 to X 593, the second faded too quickly to measure 
it, and the third extended from X 5f 1:5 to X 488,f spectrum 15, Chart I. Compared 
ivith an alcohol solution of biliverdin obtained from bile, these bands corresponded 
exactly. These experiments were repeated several times, and the result was always 
the same. Hence Actinia mesembryanthemum contains in its mesoderm and else¬ 
where a colouring matter undistinguishable from biliverdin. From the fact that dull 
green parts of Actinia mesembryanthemum assume a vivid green under the influence 
of the acidulated alcohol, it is probable that a portion at least of the biliverdin is 
present in the condition of a chromogen. 
For a long time I could not exactly determine whether the band in red specimens 
of Actinia mesembryanthemum, occupying the position nearly of that of reduced 
haemoglobin, was not the same as that of Actiniochrome, because Professor Moseley’s 
drawing of the spectrum was lost, but on examining Bunodes crassicornis, in which 
Actiniochrome occurs, I was able to decide this point. The band of Actiniochrome is 
nearer the red, and is represented in Chart I., spectrum 16. 
The next point to be determined was whether the same decomposition products could 
be obtained from the respective colouring matters, but as long as I dealt with solid 
tissues I got conflicting results ; at length, however, I found that I could get Actinio- 
* ‘ Spectroscope in Medicine,’ 1880, and Proc. Roy. Soc., No. 208, 1880, No. 226, 1883, and Journ. 
Physiol., vol. vi , pp. 22-39. 
f The reading of the violet edge of tlie last band may not be quite accurate. 
MDCCCLX XXV. 4 O 
