DR. C. A. MAC MUNIS!" ON THE CHROMATOLOGY OP ACTINIA. 
653 
use the presence of two pigments was proved. One of them was the familiar actinio- 
hsematin, the other a pigment different from any I had examined before. 
On digesting the interior parts in rectified spirit and caustic potash an orange- 
coloured solution was obtained, and on treatment with ammonium sulphide two bands 
like those of reduced hsematin appeared, as shown in spectrum 5, Chart III.,* of 
which the first read from X 563 to X 554'5, the second was not distinct enough to be 
read. 
A different result was obtained on examining the solutions obtained from the 
ectoderm. 
As usual, I digested the ectoderm in rectified spirit and caustic potash, and after 
filtering obtained a red solution, and at the end of six weeks a similar solution 
retained a fine carmine-red colour. A deep layer transmitted red and a little green, 
and in a thinner one a broad band with ill-defined shading occupied the middle of the 
spectrum; both are shown in spectra 6 and 7, Chart III. Measurement showed 
that a deep layer absorbed the spectrum from X 557 onwards to the violet, and the 
broad band extended from X 540 to X 467. On treatment with ammonium sulphide the 
red colour was replaced by a brownish-yellow, and now a broad shading covered D 
and extended towards E (spectrum 8, Chart III.). But it is not necessary to use an 
alkali for extracting this colouring matter, as it goes into solution when the ectoderm 
is digested in absolute alcohol. Such a solution is red in deep layers and yellow in 
thin, and in the former gives a band at D, broad and ill-defined, and absorbs strongly 
the whole of the spectrum from close before E onwards towards violet,+ spectrum 9, 
Chart III., while in a thin layer a double band became detached, as shown in the 
spectrum 10, Chart III. The broad band at D extended from X 640 to X576, and the 
second about X 535 to X 511'5, while the third was from X 505 to X 484'5 (?). On adding 
sulphide of ammonium the solution became a dark purple colour, changing rapidly to 
yellowish-red, which appeared a fine red by gaslight. A curious appearance was here 
noted, showing that, this colouring matter is capable of existing in two states of 
oxidation; a dark purplish zone was noticed on the surface of the liquid in contact 
with the air, which momentarily disappeared on inverting the test tube, but at once 
reappeared when left to rest. The reduced solution gave spectrum 11, Chart III. 
The purple colour is due to the action of alkali, and the yellowish-red to the action of 
the reducing agent; and the change from the alkaline oxidised state to the alkaline 
reduced state, could be brought about as often as one wished. The band of the 
reduced alkaline solution extended from X 623 to X 572. The band of the purple 
solution (oxidised state) is broader and darker than the latter. This solution, after 
being kept for four months, preserved a blue colour, the H 3 S having gradually escaped. 
* They are slightly nearer violet than in other cases, as can be seen by comparison with former 
spectra. 
t The spectrum of this body is not unlike Kuhne’s “ rhodophan,” also tetronerythrin, but it does not 
belong to one or the other, as its colour-changes show. 
MDCCCLXXXV. 4 P 
