70 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



with Jaffe's 1 ornithin C 5 H I2 N 2 2 , which is probably diamido- 

 valerianic acid. Drechsel considers therefore that probably 

 lysine is a body of this class (diamido-caproic acid, for in- 

 stance). 



If this base be heated with strong hydrochloric acid up 

 to a temperature of 150° C, no change occurs; but on 

 heating it with barium hydrate to 120° or 130° it is de- 

 composed with the production of barium carbonate. It 

 can, therefore, account for some of the carbonic anhydride 

 observed in Schiitzenberger's experiments. 



The chief interest centres, however, round the second 

 base, lysatine or lysatinine, which has a formula either 

 C 6 H I3 N 3 2 or C 6 H„N 3 0, and is a homologue of either 

 creatine or creatinine C 4 H 9 N 3 2 or C 4 H 7 N 3 0, according 

 as the first or second formula is taken. It is obtained pure 

 as a double salt of its nitrate in combination with silver 

 nitrate, and this double salt when boiled with barium 

 hydrate for twenty-five minutes yields urea. This is a 

 decomposition exactly analogous to that of creatinine under 

 the same circumstances. From ten grammes of the double 

 salt he obtained about one gramme of urea, a considerable 

 quantity when one considers that urea itself under these 

 circumstances is quickly broken up into ammonia and 

 carbonic anhydride. The great importance of these facts 

 rests in that this is the first time urea has been obtained 

 as a direct decomposition product of a proteid. 



Bechamp, 2 viewing metabolism as essentially a process 

 of gradual oxidation, considered he ought to get urea by 

 acting upon proteids in such a manner. He therefore 

 treated dried egg-white with potassium permanganate and 

 stated that he had been successful in obtaining small 

 quantities of urea. This result was contradicted by Staedeler, 3 

 Lcew, 4 and Tappeiner, 6 though confirmed by Ritter. The 

 matter was, however, finally settled by the experiments of 



1 Ber. der deat. chem. Gese/lschaft, vol. x., p. 1925. 



2 Liebig's Ann. Chem., vol. 100, p. 247, 1856. 

 % Journ.f. Prak. Chemie, vol. 72, p. 251, 1857. 



4 Ibid. (2), vol. iii., p. 289, 1871. 



5 Ibid. (2), vol. iv., p. 408, 1871. 



6 Comptes Rendu s, 73, 12 19. 



