256 DR. C. A. MAC MUNN ON ENTEROCHLOROPHYLL, AND ALLIED PIGMENTS. 
Mytilus edulis, using for the purpose the alcohol extracts of twenty-eight “livers.” 
The bands of the solutions so obtained were not affected by treatment with caustic 
soda # in the cold, nor on boiling with it. Their readings were as follows: 1st, 
A 683*5 to X 649 ; 2nd, X 623 to X 596 5 ; 3rd, X 547 to X 535 ; the bands nearer the 
violet, of which there were two, could not be measured. 
On saponifying as before, I found that the separation of the green from the yellow 
constituent could not be completely brought about, the petroleum-ether giving a band 
in red from X 675 to X 657. Two lipochrome bands were also barely visible, which 
could not be measured ; moreover, the first ether extract removed all the colouring 
matter from the soap, as in the case of Spongilla. This solution was a dull yellow- 
green colour, and its bands were but little different from those of the original 
chlorophyll solution ; they read : 1st, X 683'5 to X 649 ; 2nd, X 640 to X 629 ; 3rd, 
X 620'5 to X 596*5 ; 4th, X 543 to X 532, and two others belonging to the yellow con¬ 
stituent too faint to be measured. The mother liquid (soap-lees) gave a band in red, 
X 675 to X 651*5, and another, X 640 to X 625. It will be noticed that the most 
important change was the appearance of the X 640 to X 629 band—which was very 
faint—in the ether solution. 
On attempting to extract the yellow constituent from the green by evaporating the 
ether solution, and extracting with petroleum-ether, I failed, as both constituents 
were dissolved by it. This result was so constant that I think it may be accepted as 
a peculiarity of enterochlorophyll. 
The “chlorophyll-yellow” in this case gave, in the solid state, a yellow colour with 
iodine in iodide of potassium, a green and blue with sulphuric acid, and a transient 
blue with nitric acid. Hence it is a lipochrome. 
The enterochlorophyll of Mytilus, obtained by evaporating an alcohol solution, is 
insoluble in water, soluble in alcohol, ether, chloroform, bisulphide of carbon, benzol, 
petroleum-ether, and in olive oil. Its solubility in the last medium explains how it is 
held in solution in oil drops in many cases. 
It is coloured, in the solid state, a fine blue-green and green with strong sulphuric 
acid, which does not destroy the bands, as they are seen in the resulting green solution 
after filtering through asbestos, but not in the same position as before. They are the 
same bands as those seen in a solution of enterochlorophyll after treatment with 
nitric acid. Nitric acid colours the solid pigment blue-green, which eventually 
disappears, and is replaced by a red colour. Hence by saponifying it is clear that 
enterochlorophyll differs from plant chlorophyll with regard (l) to the difficulty of 
separating its green from its yellow constituent; (2) to the position of the bands in a 
petroleum-ether extract of the yellow constituent; (3) in the fact that while this 
yellow constituent gives a similar colour reaction with nitric and sulphuric acids, it 
gives a different colour with iodine in iodide of potassium in most cases. 
* A similar effect was noticed in the case of Ostrcea, the solution becoming more orange after boiling 
-yvith NaHO. 
