ADDITIONS AND NOTES TO VOL. I. 477 



Mulder. The discovery of tyrosine by Liebig, and the decompo- 

 sition of the protein-bodies by oxidising agents, as illustrated by 

 the investigations of Guckelberger and Schlieper, may be quoted 

 as amongst the results which have sprung from this idea. But 

 none of these investigations have led us to the goal which we had 

 in view, since, for the most part, they only made us acquainted 

 with the more remote products of decomposition. Mulder, how- 

 ever, in his search after a radical, has established several proximate 

 products of metamorphosis, although he was unsuccessful in the 

 attainment of his proposed object. Scherer, who was one of the 

 first to submit the different protein-bodies to careful elementary 

 analysis, instituted further investigations regarding their qualita- 

 tive analogies and differences, and always sought to trace the 

 proximate forms of metamorphosis of the protein-bodies, both as 

 they occur naturally in healthy or diseased o'rganisms, in special 

 organs, or in the blood, and as they are artificially formed by the 

 action of the less powerful reagents. Although as yet we have 

 attained to no certain conclusion, or indeed to any conclusion 

 whatever, we believe that this is the only course which can lead 

 us to clearer views. If the discovery of the crystallisability of one 

 of these substances has afforded us the means of obtaining it in a 

 purer state than formerly, the analyses which I have hitherto 

 instituted of the substance of the different crystalline forms have 

 yielded us no definite distinction ; hence we can here only refer to 

 those products of the metamorphosis of the protein-bodies which 

 may be considered as proximate products of their decomposition. 

 The first of these which requires notice is albumen-protein. 



(38) Addition to p. 336, line 26. Paralbumen is an albuminous 

 substance discovered by Scherer,* who met with it on several 

 occasions in the contents of ovarian cysts. It is precipitated from 

 the watery solution by alcohol in granular flakes ; these, however, 

 again dissolve in water at 35 in the course of a few hours, and 

 give the same reactions as the body in its previous state of 

 solution. The aqueous solution is rendered only slightly turbid 

 by boiling, but thick flakes are deposited if acetic acid be then 

 added, although this acid is altogether devoid of action in the cold 

 solution. Nitric acid induces a considerable precipitate in the 

 ordinary solution, while hydrochloric acid, on the other hand, only 

 gives rise to a slight turbidity even when added in large quantity. 

 Ferrocyanide of potassium, chromic acid, bichloride of mercury, 

 * Verhandl. d. phys.-med. Ges. zu Wurzburg. Bd. 2, S. 214. 



