XX.—On Some Meratiic Compounps oF ALBUMIN AND Myosin. 
By R. H. Currrenpen anp Henry H. Wurrenovuse, Pu.B. 
Ever since Lieberkiihn, in 1852, attempted to establish the molecu- 
lar weight of albumin by preparing and analyzing the copper com- 
pound resulting from the action of a soluble copper salt on a solution 
of egg-albumin, various investigations have been published bearing 
on the nature and composition of the compounds of albumin with the 
heavy metals. Before this time even, F. Rose, in 1833, had published 
an analysis of a copper compound of albumin in which he had found 
from 1°50 to 1:70 per cent. of cupric oxide, and Mitscherlich, in 1837, 
published an analysis of a similar albumin compound, in which he 
found from 2°8 to 3°3 per cent. of cupric oxide, while Lieberkiihn’s 
compound contained 4°6 percent. CuO. Compounds of albumin with 
other metals have also from time to time been prepared, such as zine, 
lead, silver and mercury, and in one or two cases provisional formule 
have been given. The results, however, are to be considered as 
quite uncertain. With platinum chloride a compound appears to 
have been formed* of somewhat more certain composition. Aside 
from the more recent experiments of Ritthausent on the vegetable 
-albumins (gluten-casein, legumin, etc.), egg-albumin has been the 
chief albuminous body experimented with, and copper the main 
metal. ; 
Recent work by one of us (C) on the albumose and globulose 
bodies, together with work on the products formed from casein and 
myosin, has led to a partial study of the metallic compounds of these 
bodies. As a preliminary, however, we found it necessary to study a 
few of the compounds of egg-albumin, and as the results thus obtained 
were not in accord with the more recent results of Harnack{ we have 
continued our work with egg-albumin and with myosin, the results 
of which we now present. 
* See Commaile, Moniteur Scientifique, 1866, and Fuchs, in Annalen der Chemie, 
vol. cli, p. 372. 
+ Die Eiweisskérper der Getreidearten, ete. Journal fiir prakt. Chem., vol. xii, p. 361. 
¢ Untersuchungen iiber die Kupferverbindungen des Albumins. Zeitschrift fiir phy- 
siologische Chemie, vol. v, p. 198. 
