92 THURLOW C. NELSON 



Expressed in percentage weight of the fresh styles gives: 



ppr cent 



Water 87. 11 



organic 12.03 



Solid matter ^ . . „ __ 



inorganic 0.86 



The albuminous nature of the style substance was shown by the 

 following reactions. The styles were washed rapidly by decan- 

 tation and dissolved in distilled water. The solution was 

 neutral. Cone. HCl, Millon's reagent, biuret and Adamkiewicz 

 tests were all strongly positive. Boiled with a 2 per cent solu- 

 tion of H2SO4, neutralized and precipitated with alcohol, taken 

 to dryness, and dissolved in water, the style substance gave a 

 strong reduction with Fehling's solution, similar to that given 

 by mucin and chondrin, but might have been due to the sac- 

 charification of a hydrocarbon. All attempts to find such a 

 hydrocarbon were futile. 



Maillard and Vies ('07) found a similar reduction when a so- 

 lution of styles, containing one part to a hundred of sodium 

 fluoride was tested with Fehhng's solution. This reduction, 

 though feeble, was constant. That it was not due to the pres- 

 ence of a sugar was shown by a negative reaction with phenyl- 

 hydrazine. 



Barrois tested this reducing action of the style and found it 

 to be equal in reducing power to 0.059 gm. of glucose, per gm. 

 of dry protein matter present. Whatever this reducing sub- 

 stance might have been, it was not optically active. 



Passing a current of CO2 through a solution of styles, and also 

 saturation with MgS04 after the method of Hammarsten for 

 blood serum, showed that practically all of the proteid matter 

 of the style exists as a globulin. 



In conclusion; Barrois points out as most important the ac- 

 I tion of hot weak acids on the style, a reaction similar to that 

 ' shown by the albuminoid matter of mucin and chondrin. These, 

 he holds, are protein constituents, which in animals of higher 

 organization, at least, appear to us as albuminoids which are 

 more or less non-catabolized (degrades), that is, no longer fill a 

 biological role in the phenomena of general nutrition, and hence 



