126 PHYSIOLOGY [Bot. Absts., Vol. V, 



a popular account of the utilization of a muck swamp, and among the products described is 

 that designated "inoculant" — a material in which 28 strains of legume bacteria and 5 strains 

 of Azotobacter are grown. — G. M. Armstrong. 



903. Hirsch, Paul. Die Einwirkung von Mikroorganismen auf die Eiweisskorper. [The 

 action of micro-organisms on proteins.] IX+255 p., 7 fig. Die Biochemie in Einzeldarstel- 

 lungen IV [Edited by A. Kanitz]. Gebriider Borntraeger: Berlin, 1918. — This number in 

 the above biochemical series is essentially an amino acid reference book and follows naturally 

 No. Ill, by M. Siegfried, on partial protein hydrolysis ("Uber partielle Eiweisshydrolyze"). 

 This monograph takes up the secondary cleavages of the proteins, the decomposition of the 

 amino acids. The first part discusses the chemistry of the amino acids and of their proteol- 

 ysis by bacteria and fungi, with one section on ergot. Part 2 gives chemical and biological 

 methods for isolating and determining the amino acid cleavage products. Part 3 gives the 

 physical and chemical properties of the products and their derivatives, and part 4, the syn- 

 thesis of some of them. — W. H. Chambers. 



904. Holm, George E. A modification of the apparatus for the determination of arginine 

 nitrogen by Van Slyke's method. Jour. Amer. Chem. Soc. 42: 611-612. 1920. 



905. Levene, P. A. The structure of yeast nucleic acid. V. Ammonia hydrolysis. 

 Jour. Biol. Chem. 41 : 19-23. 1920. — On mild hydrolysis with 5-per cent ammonia at a tempera- 

 ture of 100°C. yeast nucleic acid is broken up into four nucleotides. Three have already been 

 reported. A fourth, crystalline cytidinphosphoric acid, has now been isolated. — G. B. Rigg. 



906. Long, Esmond R. A study in fundamentals of the nutrition of the tubercle bacillus : 

 the utilization of some amino acids and ammonium salts. Amer. Rev. of Tuberculosis 3 : 86- 

 108. 2 fig. 1919. — The experiments performed are concerned primarily with the growth of 

 human tubercle bacilli on media of known chemical composition. The hydrolysis of prote- 

 oses and peptones, as also the deaminization of some of the constituent amino acids, is 

 reported. Good growth was afforded by glycerol media with urethane, glycocoll, and alanine 

 as sources of nitrogen; likewise ammonia, methyl amine, and ethyl amine, as also the acid 

 amids, were utilized. Ammonium salts of the dibasic acids oxalic, malonic, succinic, malic, 

 and tartaric afforded excellent growth, but the ammonium salts of fatty, ketonic, and hy- 

 droxy acids did not permit growth. Between P H 6.4 and P H 7.8 the reaction of a glycerol 

 peptone culture medium is unimportant in the growth of this organism. Regarding the course 

 of catabolism, it is suggested that "the amino acids (that is, those studied — glycocoll and 

 alanine) break up into ammonia and alcohols, perhaps with amines as intermediate stages, 

 that hydroxy malonic acid (tartaric acid) is formed in the medium through the oxidation of 

 glycerol, and that ammonium malonate and malonic ester, or closely allied compounds, are 

 of great importance in the synthesis of the bacillus's organic substance." — B. M. Duggar. 



907. Phelps, I. K., and H. W. Datjdt. Investigations of the Kjeldahl method for the 

 determination of nitrogen. Jour. Assoc. Official Agric. Chem. 3: 218-220. 1919. — See Bot. 

 Absts. 5, Entry 1006. 



908. Trowbridge, P. F. Symposium on the determination of nitrogen in fertilizers. 

 Jour. Assoc. Official Agric. Chem. 3: 217-218. 1919.— See Bot. Absts. 5, Entry 1007. 



METABOLISM (ENZYMES, FERMENTATION) 



909. Anonymous. Glycerin manufacture by the fermentation of sugar. Sci. Amer. Sup- 

 plem. 88: 315. 1919. — [From Engineering, Sept. 5, 1919.] — A method employing yeasts. — 

 Chas. H. Otis. 



910. Anonymous. [Rev. of: Biedermann, W. Fermentstudien. 1. Mitteilung. Das 

 Speichelferment. (Salivary ferments.) Fermentforschung 1 : 385-436. 1916.] Biedermann 's 

 Zentralbl. Agrikulturchem. 47: 279-280. 1918. — The reviewer credits the author with finding 



