PHOSPHOROUS SUBSTANCES OF THE CELL. 143 



5 p.m.). The extract was then neutralised and platinum 

 chloride added, when an amorphous precipitate of protamine 

 platinum chloride is obtained. The free base possesses 

 marked basic properties ; is soluble in water but insoluble 

 in alcohol or ether. It is precipitated by phospho-tungstic 

 acid, potassio-mercuric iodide, mercuric chloride and gold 

 chloride. The examination of this body was continued by 

 Piccard, 1 who found that Miescher's preparation contained 

 small quantities of guanin and hypoxanthin, and by fresh 

 analysis of the purified platinum salt obtained the formula 

 C I6 H 32 N 9 4 . 



Twenty years later Kossel 2 described an important re- 

 action of protamine, for he found that in an ammoniacal 

 solution of a proteid or albumose protamine gave a preci- 

 pitate which showed all the reactions of kistou, a proteid 

 which he had previously obtained 3 from the red corpuscles 

 of birds' blood. 



In Miescher's later paper further analyses of protamine 

 are given from which the formula C l6 H 28 N 9 2 is obtained. 

 To investigate the constitution of protamine he heated the 

 hydrochlorate up to 170 C. in a sealed tube with 15 per 

 cent, hydrochloric acid, and among the decomposition pro- 

 ducts was able to isolate the base Arginine C 6 H I4 N 4 2 , 

 which, originally discovered by Schultze and Steiger 4 in 

 vegetable tissues, has since been isolated by Hedin 5 from the 

 decomposition products of many proteids of animal tissues. 

 The great interest of this base lies in the fact that if its 

 silver compound be boiled with baryta water for twenty 

 minutes it yields urea. Hedin also shows that the base 

 lysatine obtained by Drechsel from proteids, which simi- 

 larly yields urea, is in reality a mixture of lysine with 

 arginine. 



o 



1 Piccard : Ber. d. d. chem. Ges., Bd. 7, S. 17 14, 1874. 



2 Kossel : Deutsche med. IVochenschr., 1894, No. 7. 



3 Kossel : Zeitschr. f. physiol. C/iem., Bd. 8, S. 511, 1884. 



4 Schultze and Steiger : Ztschr.f. physiol. Chem., Bd. 9, S. 43 ; and Ber.. 

 d. d. chem. Ges., Bd. 24, S. 2707 ; and Bd. 29, S. 352, 1896. 



5 Hedin. : Ztschr. f. physiol. Chem., Bd. 20, S. 186, 1895 ; Bd. 21 

 S. 155, 1896; and Bd. 22, S. 191, 1897. 



