and the angles of one cube were rounded. After 24 hrs. the angles of
all the cubes were rounded, and they were rendered throughout very
tender; after 30 hrs. the secretion began to decrease, and after 48
hrs. the glands were left dry; but very minute bits of albumen were
still left undissolved.
(5) Smaller cubes of albumen (about 1/50 or 1/60 of an inch, .508 or
.423 mm.) were placed on four glands; after 18 hrs. one cube was
completely dissolved, the others being much reduced in size, softened,
and transparent. After 24 hrs. two of the cubes were completely
dissolved, and already the secretion on these glands was almost wholly
absorbed. After 42 hrs. the two other cubes were completely dissolved.
These four glands began to secrete again after eight or nine days.
(6) Two large cubes of albumen (fully 1/20 of an inch, 1.27 mm.) were
placed, one near the midrib and the other near the margin [page 383] of
a leaf; in 6 hrs. there was much secretion, which after 48 hrs.
accumulated in a little pool round the cube near the margin. This cube
was much more dissolved than that on the blade of the leaf; so that
after three days it was greatly reduced in size, with all the angles
rounded, but it was too large to be wholly dissolved. The secretion was
partially absorbed after four days. The cube on the blade was much less
reduced, and the glands on which it rested began to dry after only two
days.
(7) Fibrin excites less secretion than does meat or albumen. Several
trials were made, but I will give only three of them. Two minute shreds
were placed on some glands, and in 3 hrs. 45 m. their secretion was
plainly increased. The smaller shred of the two was completely
liquefied in 6 hrs. 15 m., and the other in 24 hrs.; but even after 48
hrs. a few granules of fibrin could still be seen through a lens
floating in both drops of secretion. After 56 hrs. 30 m. these granules
were completely dissolved. A third shred was placed in a little pool of
secretion, within the margin of a leaf where a seed had been lying, and
this was completely dissolved in the course of 15 hrs. 30 m.
(8) Five very small bits of gluten were placed on a leaf, and they
excited so much secretion that one of the bits glided down into the
marginal furrow. After a day all five bits seemed much reduced in size,
but none were wholly dissolved. On the third day I pushed two of them,
329