CHEMISTRY. 513 



"Our preparations of this globulin contained from 6 to 17 per cent of nucleic iicid, 

 most of them from 12 to 15 per cent. From this the proteid could not be separated 

 by fractional precipitation. . . . 



"In composition and properties this globulin agrees with that found by the writer in 

 the kernels of wheat, rye, and barley. So far as we have been able to observe, it 

 differs from edestin, the crystalline globulin obtained from seeds of hemp, llax, and 

 squash only in containing two-thirds as much suli)hur." 



(4) Two proteoses, too-ether constituting about 5 per cent of the 

 embryo. 



"About one-third of the total nitrogen of the embryo is not extracted by water 

 and salt solutions and appears to belong to insolu1)le compounds. This nitrogen is 

 accompanied by phosphorus corresponding to about 6. 75 percent of nucleic acid, which 

 would contain two-thirds of this insoluble nitrogen. It seems probable, therefore, 

 that this insoluble nitrogen belongs largely to insoluble compounds of nucleic acid 

 and protein. . . . 



"The ])roteidsof the embryo differ from those of the dormant endosperm, of this 

 as well as of other seeds, in the facility with which they undergo (ihanges. These 

 changes are the result of a redistribution of acids among the protein and other basic 

 molecules, so that compounds form in the extracts of the embryo which contain 

 various proportions of nucleic acid according to the changing conditions. 



"The writer has shown that the glol)ulin, edestin, fonns crystalline compounds 

 with one and with two molecules of acid and also compounds with a greater number 

 of acid molecules. There is reason to believe that all other native protein substances 

 form similar compounds; in other words, that proteins are distinctly polyacid bases 

 and tiiat the at-id characters which proteids display are due to acids united to their 

 protein molecules, probably in the same maimer as in the salts of the jjurin bases. 



"These nucleic acid compounds of the protein constituents of the wheat endjryo 

 appear to be compounds of this order. According to this view, no special distinction 

 can be made between nucleins and nucleoproteids, the former being simply com- 

 pounds containing a greater number (jf molecules of nucleic acid united to one 

 molecule of protein. 



"That the wheat embryo in fact contained the same nucleic acid compounds as 

 we have oV)tained innn the extracts is highly improbal)le. All that we can conclude 

 is that the embryo contains the different i^rotein substances described, together with 

 nucleic acid, and that these may unite to form a number of different compounds 

 according to the conditions which prevail at any given time." 



The proteids of the egg yolk, T. B. Osborne and G. F. Camp- 

 bell {Connecticut ^tate Sta. lipt. 1809, j^^- '^i ]PP- oo9-3JfxS; Jour. 

 Amer. Chem. Soc, 22(1900), No. 7, pp. 413-422).— The authors found 

 that sodium chlorid solutions dissolve from egg yolk a large amount 

 of protein matter resembling a globulin, but which is believed to be a 

 mixture of compounds of ])rotein matter with lecithin. 



"Preparations of these compounds contain from 15 to 30 per cent of lecithin. The 

 more soluble products obtained by fractional precipitation contain larger proportions 

 of lecithin than the less soluble — that is, they are more acid compounds. These 

 compounds might well be called lecithin-nucleo-vitellin. 



"The lecithin thus combined is not removed by ether, Ijut readily by alcohol. 

 The insoluble lecithin-free proteid, obtained by treating the lecithin compounds with 

 alcohol, has a constant composition when obtained from successive fractional precip- 

 itations of the lecithin compound. . . . 



"This sul)stance on digesting with jjcpsin yields i)aranuclein of variable composi- 

 tion. When the analyses of the nucleovitellin and the paranuclein are calculated 



