512 Transactions of the Canadian Institute. [Vol. VII 



portion soluble in alcohol may be made to pass over into the insoluble 

 stage, and that there exists but one mother substance of gluten in flour. 



None of the proofs as to the existence or non-existence of a ferment 

 appear at all conclusive. Dry heat at ioo° C. or even iio° C. for 

 several hours does not kill ferments, neither does alcohol for a short 

 period. To prove the non-existence of a ferment presents in this case 

 peculiar and apparently unsurmountable difficulties, but a few facts 

 bearing on the point may be given here. 



Seventy per cent, alcohol, cold or hot, applied directlx', extracts 

 gliadin from dry flour ; warm 95 per cent, alcohol does the same ; flour 

 moistened with 95 per cent, alcohol and heated to 80° C. yields abundant 

 gliadin, as does flour stirred into boiling water and then extracted with 

 alcohol. When flour, however, is slowly sifted into boiling water, so 

 that every particle comes into instant contact with water or steam at 

 100° C. it yields no gliadin to dilute alcohol. 



Dough made from flour and boiling water does yield gluten on 

 washing, as stated by O'Brien, but it is smaller in amount and is of 

 irregular consistency. The temperature of the dough when mixed was 

 found to be only 52.5° C. Now glutenin has a definite coagulation 

 point. Alartin^^ stated that the residue after extracting gluten with 

 dilute alcohol was coagulated by boiling water. Before noticing his 

 work I had found the coagulation point of glutenin to be about 70° C. 

 When, therefore, a dough was made with boiling water, and only 

 reached the temperature of 52° C. only a comparatively small amount 

 of the flour must have been heated to 70° C, a temperature which 

 v,oagulates glutenin. Consequently a quantity of gluten would be 

 formed from the portion of the flour not heated to that point. A dough 

 made in this way and gradually heated till it reached a temperature of 

 80° C. yielded no gluten, proving that its formation depended upon the 

 glutenin not being coagulated. 



A dry heat of 110° C. for ten hours does not coagulate proteid, and 

 flour heated to this point still yields gluten ; but if flour is heated to 

 120° C, or even 100° C, for half an hour in the autoclave a dough of 

 little coherence results, and no gluten is obtainable on washing even 

 over silk. The glutenin had been coagulated. In other words any 

 temperature or manipulation that would kill a ferment which might be 

 present would coagulate the glutenin and therefore gluten could not be 

 obtained. The fact that gluten has a definite coagulation point would 

 seem to indicate that it is not derived from the same substance as 



