330 PROTEIN-COMPOUNDS. 



and lastly, because the hyposulphites yield a most evident sulphur- 

 reaction when heated with organic substances on silver foil. 

 Mulder in like manner assumes that the phosphorus contained in 

 albumen, exists in the state of phosphamide, H 2 NP, a purely 

 hypothetical body, and totally different from Gerhardt's phospha- 

 mide, whose amide nature is moreover very doubtful, These are 

 some of the grounds on which we have been led to regard Mulder's 

 view as a mere scientific fiction. By subtracting the elements of 

 hyposulphurous acid from the composition of those albuminous 

 substances which do not yield the sulphur-reaction, and the 

 elements of sulphamide from those yielding such a reaction, 

 Mulder obtained a group of atoms of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, 

 and oxygen, which in all these compounds exhibited perfectly 

 identical relations, or only a slight increase of oxygen. This com- 

 plex atomic group contained in 100 parts 54*7 of carbon, 6- 8 of 

 hydrogen, 14*2 of nitrogen, and 24*3 of oxygen. For this complex 

 group Mulder has calculated the formula C 36 H 25 N 4 O 10 4-2HO, 

 which expresses, according to him, the true composition of the 

 perfectly non-sulphurous protein. 



The sulphur which is not detected by the above named reac- 

 tions can only be discovered and quantitatively determined by the 

 dry method ; fusing the dry, organic substance with a mixture of 

 alkaline nitrates and carbonates or caustic alkalies in a silver 

 crucible till the fused mass becomes perfectly white, when the 

 sulphuric acid which has been thus formed, can be determined from 

 the residual saline mass. 



ALBUMEN. 

 Chemical Relations. 



Properties. Albumen, the principal representative of the pro- 

 tein-compounds, is distinguished amongst these bodies by its 

 occurrence in very different modifications, which are however not 

 to be sought in a different arrangement of the atoms of this sub- 

 stance, that is to say, in a polymerism or metamerism, but depend 

 alone on the substances mixed with it, as alkalies and salts. Hence 

 the albumen of the blood differs in several points of view, not 

 only from that of the hen's egg, and the latter from that of a dove's 

 egg, but it is even found that the albumen of the blood differs in 

 different persons, and that the albumen of the albuminous fluids 

 of the same individual does not exhibit precisely similar reactions. 



