648 
DR. C. A. MAC MUNN ON THE CHROMATOLOGY OF ACTINIAE. 
In other specimens of Bunodes crassicornis, from Llandudno, the ectoderm had a 
dark purple-red colour, and the tentacles were purple-red, with more lightly tinted 
apices ; here the tentacles gave Moseley’s Actiniochrome spectrum with great distinct¬ 
ness, spectrum 16, Chart I. and 5, II., and on squeezing them in the compressorium 
two other bands nearer the violet end of the spectrum. The red colouring matter 
(Actiniochrome) was confined to the ectodermal layer of the tentacles. Its band read 
from X 600 to X 560, including the feeble shadings on each side of it. The ectoderm 
of the body wall gave a band somewhat like the last specimens, but nearer violet, 
which evidently resembles the band of actiniohsematin in former cases. In the 
endodermal parts the same band could be seen, but less distinctly. Beneath the 
ectoderm (mesoderm) a greenish layer was seen showing no bands. 
On digesting the tentacles for three days in glycerin a violet-red solution was 
obtained, and this gave spectrum 5, Chart II. This band of Actiniochrome in glycerin 
extended from X 596'5 to X 563,'“ centre at X 579. The band in violet of the same 
spectrum from X 477 to X458‘5 (?). On treatment with caustic soda the former band 
remained unchanged, and no change—except very slight shifting towards violet—was 
produced by adding ammonium sulphide. On treatment with acetic acid (of a 
glycerin extract), the colour and spectrum became less distinct; sulphuric acid also 
made the band fainter. On treating some tentacles with caustic potash and spirit, 
and subsequently ammonium sulphide, no evidence of the presence of hgemochromogen 
could be obtained. Now the red colouring matter of the ectoderm, when treated 
in the same way, yielded a solution which, with caustic soda and subsequently 
ammonium sulphide, gave the hsemochromogen bands. Other portions of ectoderms 
were extracted with rectified spirit and caustic potash, and yielded a red solution, 
showing an ill-defined band before D (as in other cases), and on treatment with 
ammonium sulphide the bands of hsemochromogen appeared, the first, from X 563 to 
X 554 - 5, and the second from X 540 to X 524’5. The solid parts of such ectoderms 
after this treatment with caustic potash and alcohol—as in all cases when actiniohfe- 
matin is present—showed two well-marked htemochromogen bands, which on measure¬ 
ment were found to have the following wave-lengths, the first, from X 567'5 to X 556, 
and the second, from X 537 to X5215. On comparison with the spectrum of an 
alcoholic or glycerin solution of hsemochromogen, a discrepancy in the measurements 
is noticeable, the reason is simply this : that in one case the pigment is in the solid 
state, in the other in solution (spectrum 6, Chart IT.). The endodermal parts also 
contained actiniohsematin, as proved by the same treatment. 
Just as in Actinia mesembryanthemum so also in Bunodes crassicornis, I succeeded 
in getting hsematoporphyrin from the actiniohsematin. Portions of ectoderm, in which 
the pigments had been converted into hsemochromogen by treatment with rectified 
spirit and caustic potash, were acted upon with sulphuric acid, and the resulting purple- 
* Its darkest part was from \ 589 to A 569. 
