508 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1883. 



A STUDY OF THE DISTEIBTITION OF GLUTEN WITHIN THE WHEAT 



GRAIN. 



BY N. A. RANDOLPH, M. D. 



The object of the present paper is to briefl}^ describe several 

 methods for the demonstration of gluten in the central portion of 

 the wheat grain, and the results of their application. 



For many years the great majority of observers and of writers 

 upon gluten have stated that this highly important nitrogenous 

 element of food is found almost, if not quite exclusively, in tlie 

 fourth layer (Parkes) of the grain, immediately below and adhe- 

 rent to the third or inner coat of the true bran ; this fourth layer 

 is composed of closely packed yellowish granular cells of ovate or 

 cuboid form, each of which is provided with a dense, laminated 

 cellulose wall and contains a large proportion of free fat. Imme- 

 diately within this layer of so-called " gluten-cells," and constituting 

 the greater portion of the grain, is an aggregation of much larger, 

 usually elongated, C3dindrical cells, whose contents are ajjparently 

 made up exclusively of starch granules which exliibit great 

 diversity in size. 



So fixed and widespread has the belief become that the gluten 

 of the wheat resides in specific cortical cells of tlie grain, that not 

 onl}^ do mau}'^ most intelligent persons habitually rasp their 

 digestive surfaces with branny foods, but attempts to determine, 

 bv microscopical examination, the nutritive values of various pre- 

 pared foods have been made, in which the proportion of " gluten- 

 cells " found in a given food formed the criterion of its value.^ 

 These assumptions have called forth merited criticism from 

 Prof. Richardson, of this city, and from Prof Leeds, of Hoboken, 

 both of whom emphasized the fact, singularly ignored by Cutter, 

 Jacobi and their followers, that ordinary white wheat-flour contains 

 a varying but always notable quantity of gluten. 



So far as the writer is informed, however, there has not been 

 recorded any ocular demonstration of the gluten of the wheat 

 grain, in nitu and entirely independent of the " gluten-cells." 

 Such a demonstration may be conclusively made by either of the 

 following methods : 



1. If whole wheat grains be macerated in water to which a few 



1 E. Cutter, M. D., Galliard's Med. Jour., Jan., 1883. 



