123 
ments (commercial papain) he found two proteids, a globulin and a 
«t . . __ ^ M 
peptone ; and he could not come to any conclusion as to which 
of these bodies was the ferment, or, to speak more correctly, which 
was associated with it. 
In the present investigation he has attempted to settle this point. 
In the first place, the body called a "peptone'' in a previous paper 
is not a true peptone, but is one of the bodies intermediate between 
globulins and peptones, first described by Meissner as a peptone, and 
called by Kuhne hemialbumose. This body agrees with peptone in 
certain reactions, and experiment shows that the ferment-action is as- 
sociated with heraialbumose. 
Of the results obtained in the investigation of the action of papain 
on the proteids in papaw-juice only a brief summary can be given. 
Of late years the former ideas of the nature and constitution of vege- 
table proteids have been entirely revolutionized, chiefly by the re- 
searches of Denis (' Memoire sur le sang'), Weyl, Hoppe-Seyler, 
Vines, and others; so that now we may state that the two chief pro- 
teids found in plants are globulins and " peptones." Vines considers 
that there is no true peptone in the seeds of plants; he thinks it is a 
hemialbumose, and explains away Ritthausen's ** legumin " and "con- 
glutin," obtained from the sted?^ oi LegtiminoscBy referring the former 
to the class of hemialbumoses and the latter to a changed form of 
proteid produced by the action of alkalies and globulin. By pursu- 
ing the method first instituted by Denis, Dr. Martin obtained from 
])apaw-juice proteid bodies whose reactions agree with those of the 
globulins and hemialbumoses, or rather albumoses, leaving the ques- 
tion as to whether they are anti- or hemia-forms for further considera- 
tion. The albumose precipitated by sodio-magnesium sulphate cor- 
responds to Vines's hemialbumose. ■ This albumose gives the same 
reactions as those of the body with which the ferment is so closely 
associated: it is the proteid in the juice most like a peptone. Dr. 
Martin found no trife peptone. 
The action of papain on these different constituents is peculiar, 
because in Dr. Martin's former experiments he. has been able to dis- 
cover no true peptone as a result of digestion; the body which is 
formed from the globulins is the albumose found in small quantities 
in the salt extract, the body which corresponds to Vines's hemialbu- 
mose. 
Botanical Literature. 
I 
Thirty- eighth Annual Report on the New York State Museum of Nat- 
ural History. Report of the Botanist, Chas. H. Peck. Albany, 
.Weed, Parsons & Company. 1885. 
From this Report we learn that one hundred and ninety two spe- 
cies of plants were last year mounted and added to the State herba- 
rium, and that of these (of which very many were fungi not 
before published) one hundred and sixteen were not previously 
represented therein. To these must be added two State species sent 
by correspondents, and new to the herbarium, making the total num- 
ber one hundred and eighteen. 
