Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London - University Library

62
rKOCEEDINGS OF THE
antiseptics, such as toluol, pnissic acid, and sodium fluoride, with
the result that whilst in certain experiments hoth fibi'in-digestion
and peptolysis (of Witte-peptone) took place, in others peptolysis
was etfected without fibrin-digestion or vice-versa. The latter
result is susceptible of two explanations : it may indicate the
presence of a single protease of the nature of trypsin, of \\hich
either the peptonising or the peptolytic activity was paralysed by
the autiseptic : or it may indicate the presence of two proteases
the one peptonising and of the uatm-e of pepsin ; the other pepto-
lytic, an erepsin ; the one having been paralysed by the antiseptic,
but not the other. Of these two alternatives, tlie first would
seem to be less probable ; for it is natural to suppose that if a
single protease were prejudicially affected, all forms of its activity
would suffer equally. If the second alternative prove to be wellfounded,
it Avill be of exceptional interest ; for, in that case, these
observations will have demonstrated, for the first time, the presence
of a peptic protease in plants. Not onl}' so, but it will also point
the way to the solution of the problem as to the nature of the
trypsin of animals, which may be thus shown to consist, as I have
already suggested, of a mixture of pepsin with erepsin.
Although my own investigations have been confined to plants,
I have found it necessary to include the digestive processes of
animals in my remarks this evening : not only because the progress
of discovery in plants has been necessarily based for the most
part on the earlier discoveries in animals, but chiefly because the
processes are essentially the same in all living organisms, so that
the subject can only be intelligently dealt ^ith as a whole. It is
safe to prophesy that, as investigation is extended more coraprehensiveljr
to the digestive processes of the lower animals, the
more manifest will this truth become.
Abstract of Dr. Augustine Henry's discourse on Botanical
Collecting ; read 19th January, 1905.
The actual methods were briefly alluded to, stress being laid on
truthful labelling of the specimens at the moment of collection,
instead of months afterwards, when identical numbers were often
given to plants of different provenance. With the aid of nearly
50 lantern-slides, he showed his travels in China, demonstrating
that the popular idea of that country as one vast rice-field was
fallacious, as it mainly consisted of vast mountain-ranges cut up
by deep valleys. In some of the slides the home of the wild forms
of the Chrysanthemum, Primula sinensis, etc., were shown : and
the lecturer alluded to the early history of horticulture in China,
stating that the first botanical garden there was made 111 n.c. in
Shensi, plants from subtropical regions, as the Banana, Areca
Palm, and Orange, being introduced. Other slides showed typical
forms of subtropical deciduous and evergi'een trees ; and the
occurrence of epiphytes and lianes in vast numbers was mentioned.
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