54 KozLOwsKi : Primary Synthesis of Proteids 



The above presented hypothesis lacks direct proof. My own 

 repeated attempt to produce the reaction of dissociation supposed 

 for plants, either through action of gaseous N^Oj or nitrite of 

 potassium (KNO,), or soda (NaNOJ in presence of any acid (hydro- 

 chloric or acetic) upon the albumin did not give any definite result* 

 This is certainly no objection against the vaHdity of the hypothesis. 

 The conditions for such a reaction are probably very delicate and 

 very complicated and remain to be discovered. But among recent 

 pieces of work there are some which give an indirect support to 

 this hypothesis. 



Drexel t obtained through action of hydrochloric acid and 

 stannous chloride on albumin a base Uysatinc, C.H,,N,0,) which 

 gives carbamide when treated with bar}'ta water. This reaction 

 shows, as the author deduces, that carbamide Is not a product 

 of oxydation, but of hydrolysis. The same result is reached 

 through physiological deductions. J A fact of 

 physiologists is that the arginine (C^H^^N^,) obtained by Schultze 

 from the seeds o{ Lupinus and differing from lysatine only by the 

 addition of NH, gives also carbamide with baryta water. § It proves 

 that a wide difference in the constitution of animal and vecretable 

 proteins is not the ground for the different terminal products, but 

 only the difference of the chemical processes in both. 



On the other hand Buchner and Curtius, using soda nitrite on 

 the product of the reaction of h)'drochloric gas and alcohol on gela- 

 tine, obtained a diazotic compound, which differs very strikingly 

 from other compounds of this kind by its stability ; thus, e, g.^ it 

 can be boiled without decomposition. This compound was ob- 

 tained in a large amount (150 grains from 400 grains of gelatine) 

 and ought to be the only product of the reaction. The investiga- 

 tion of the products from the action of iodide upon these com- 

 pounds leads the authors to one of the following formulae : 



fc> 



•^ In tlic first case it seemed not to be produced l>y any change in tlie albumin; in the 

 second xanto protein was the constant product of tlie reaction. 



t Ueber die Biklung des Harnstoff aus Eiweiss in the Berichte deutsch. chem. 

 Gesellsch., 1890: 3096. Confr. also Siegfried, Zur Kenntniss der Spaltungsproductcn 

 der Eiweiss Ibid^ 24: 418. 1891, 



XCf. A. Gautier, Chiinic de la cellule vivante, 1895, passim. 



§ Ber. deutsch. chem. Ges. 24: 1098. 1891. 



