DR. C. A. MACMUNN ON ENTEROCHLOROPHYLL, AND ALLIED PIGMENTS. 261 
phyllan , is equally doubtful. The former substance is, according to Dragendorff, # 
probably the same as Bougarel’s+ erythrophyll . Gautier’s^ crystalline body is, 
according to Hoppe-Seyler, a mixture of erythrophyll, chlorophyllan, and wax. 
Still Hansen’s method is useful because it enables one to see if the chlorophyll of 
animals can be made to yield the same constituents as that of plants, and if the 
solutions yield the same spectra after saponifying. 
It is unnecessary to repeat the account of the results I obtained, but I may say 
that it appears that vegetable chlorophyll is considerably changed by saponification, 
so is Spongilla chlorophyll, and so is enterochlorophyll. A likeness in all the spectra 
of the solutions of these chlorophylls is, however, apparent after saponifying, and the 
ultimate constituents crystallize in the same form, so far as’ I can judge from 
Hansen’s description. The mere fact that it is most difficult to separate the 
saponified constituents of animal chlorophyll from each other, while it is easy enough 
in the case of vegetable chlorophyll, goes to show that the constitution of the 
respective chlorophylls differs, and this fact, taken in connexion with the microscopic, 
spectroscopic, and chemical evidence, seems to me to establish almost beyond doubt 
that in the case of enterochlorophyll we are dealing with an animal product. 
I have not quoted nearly all the papers written on chlorophyll, as this would be a 
great and unnecessary task. § The following table giving the wave -lengths of the 
bands in solutions of enterochlorophyll, Spongilla chlorophyll, and plant chlorophyll, 
shows at a glance the agreements and differences between them :— 
* Loc. cit., p. 115. 
t Bulletin de la Soc. Chim., tome 27 (1879), p. 442. 
X Ibid ., tome 28 (1879), p. 147. 
§ Russell and Larraik (Journal of Chem. Soc., vol. xli., p. 338) describe a splitting up of the dominant 
band of chlorophyll into two by caustic alkalies, and cite Chautard (‘Comptes Rendus,’ tome 76., p. 570), 
in support of this statement. They also state that on heating chlorophyll with solid potash it is 
completely decomposed, the dominant band disappearing. Hansen insists on the avoidance of too much 
caustic alkali, and in all cases I tried to follow his directions as closely as possible. See also paper in 
Journal of Chem. Soc., by Tschirch, 1884, p. 57 ; and Pringsheih’s “Researches on Chlorophyll,” by 
Professor B. Balfour, Quart. Journ. Micr. Soc., vol. 22, p. 75, &c. In Sachsse’s treatise, loc. cit., a 
great number of authorities are quoted. 
