those with the long soaked particles, became strongly inflected in a few hours.  The greater number re-expanded after three or four days; but three of the leaves remained inflected during one, two, or three additional days.  Hence some exciting matter must have been absorbed; but the fragments, though perhaps softened in a greater degree than those kept for the same time in water, retained all their angles as sharp as ever.  As globulin is an albuminous substance, I was astonished at this result; and my object being to compare the action of the secretion with that of gastric juice, I asked Dr. Burdon Sanderson to try some of the globulin used by me.  He reports that “it was subjected to a liquid containing 0.2 per cent. of hydrochloric acid, and about 1 per cent. of glycerine extract of the stomach of a dog.  It was then ascertained that this liquid was capable of digesting 1.31 of its weight of unboiled fibrin in 1 hr.; whereas, during the hour, only 0.141 of the above globulin was dissolved.  In both cases an excess of the substance to be digested was subjected to the liquid.”  We thus see that within the same time less than one-ninth by weight of globulin than of fibrin was dissolved; and bearing in mind that pepsin with acids of the acetic series has only about one-third of the digestive power of pepsin with hydrochloric acid, it is not surprising that the fragments of

* Watts’ ‘Dictionary of Chemistry,’ vol. ii. page 874.

  I may add that Dr. Sanderson prepared some fresh globulin by
  Schmidt’s method, and of this 0.865 was dissolved within the same
time, namely, one hour; so that it was far more soluble than that which I used, though less soluble than fibrin, of which, as we have seen, 1.31 was dissolved.  I wish that I had tried on Drosera globulin prepared by this method. [page 121]

globulin were not corroded or rounded by the secretion of Drosera, though some soluble matter was certainly extracted from them and absorbed by the glands.

Haematin.—­Some dark red granules, prepared from bullock’s blood, were given me; these were found by Dr. Sanderson to be insoluble in water, acids, and alcohol, so that they were probably haematin, together with other bodies derived from the blood.  Particles with little drops of water were placed on four leaves, three of which were pretty closely inflected in two days; the fourth only moderately so.  On the third day the glands in contact with the haematin were blackened, and some of the tentacles seemed injured.  After five days two leaves died, and the third was dying; the fourth was beginning to re-expand, but many of its glands were blackened and injured.  It is therefore clear that matter had been absorbed which was either actually poisonous or of too stimulating a nature.  The particles were much more softened than those kept for the same time in water, but, judging by the eye, very little reduced in bulk.  Dr. Sanderson tried this substance with artificial digestive fluid, in the manner described under globulin, and found that whilst 1.31 of fibrin, only 0.456 of the haematin was dissolved in an hour; but the dissolution by the secretion of even a less amount would account for its action on Drosera.  The residue left by the artificial digestive fluid at first yielded nothing more to it during several succeeding days.]