CHEMISTRY. 



87 



t ignition of the cell wall being necessary to 

 hi ing the cell contents under the influence of 

 I In- starch ami proteid-dissolving enzymes se- 

 civted by ii certain la\er of cells in the embryo. 

 The authors investigated whether grain-feeding 

 animals did not po-sess some provision in their 

 economy for removing, during digestion, the 

 walls of the starch cells of the interior of the 

 grain, in order that the cell contents may be ac- 

 cessible to the digestive enzymes of the alimen- 

 tar\ canal, and found that they did not. The cell 

 wail is completely dissolved before the grain food 

 enters the small' intestine, though the enzyme 

 diccting the dissolution is not secreted by any 

 part of the animal economy, but is pre-existent 

 in tin- germ before ingestion. The comparative 

 abundance of the cytohydrolyst in the various 

 grain foods given to stock is of great im- 

 portance, bearing as it does on the relative speed 

 of digestion. Thus oats contain a particularly 

 large proportion of the cytohydrolyst a fact 

 that throws considerable light on the cause of 

 the high estimation in which oats are held as a 



food stuff. 



The odor emitted by certain garden and other 

 soils after a heavy shower of rain in summer is 

 ascribed by Dr. PbipSOU to the presence of or- 

 ganic substances related to the essential oils of 

 plants, which they absorb from the fragrance of 

 plants during the dry season and give up again 

 when the rain penetrates its pores. The author 

 e\t racted a substance of this kind by means of a 

 solution of bromine, and found it yellowish, 

 soluble in water, having a strong odor of cedar 

 wood, and similar in chemical properties, if not 

 identical with it, to bromo-cedar, which is de- 

 rived from essence of cedar. 



Chemistry of Foods. Experiments in the 

 laboratory of the Department of Agriculture, 

 reported by Ervin E. Ewell, show that cane 

 sugar is the principal carbohydrate contained in 

 the coffee berry that is soluble in water. The 

 water-insoluble portion of coffee yields an abun- 

 dance of furfuraldehyde when distilled with hy- 

 drochloric acid, which indicates the presence of 

 a pentose-yieldingcarbohydrate. A gummy sub- 

 stance is obtained when a 5-per-cent. sodium 

 hvdroxide extract is precipitated with alcohol. 

 When this gum is washed with alcoholic hydro- 

 chloric acid, alcohol, and finally with ether, and 

 is dried over sulphuric acid, a slightly grayish, 

 translucent, hard, and brittle mass is obtained, 

 which is readily reduced to powder in a mortar. 

 The properties of this substance were determined 

 as far as the limited amount of material per- 

 mitted ; and the results obtained suggest a com- 

 pound containing one galactose group and one 

 pentose group. From a separate portion of the 

 water-insoluble material, hydrolyzed with dilute 

 sulphuric acid, a sirup was obtained that yielded 

 an abundance of furfuraldehyde and mucic acid. 

 The residue from the sucrose determination was 

 heated for five hours with 5-per-cent. sulphuric 

 acid, when it yielded reducing sugars, mucic 

 acid, and furfuraldehyde. 



Analyses by R. H. Chittenden and T. B. Os- 

 bornc show that the maize kernel contains several 

 distinct proteids, well characterized in reac- 

 tions and composition. Of them, are three globu- 

 lins, one or more albumins, and an alcohol- 

 soluble proteid. A globulin obtained by extrac- 



tion with solution of chloride of sodium is a 

 mixture of two or more dissimilar globulins 

 which differ from each other in composition and 

 in coagulation points. These two globulins are a 

 myosinlike and a vitellinlike body. They exist 

 as distinct substances in the corn or maize ker- 

 nel, and are not products of a cleavage of the 

 " mixed " globulin. Direct extraction of finely 

 powdered corn meal with water leaves a dilute 

 salt solution, which dissolves the myosinlike 

 globulin and leaves the bulk of the vitellinlike 

 substance undissolved. The myosin can be sepa- 

 rated from the solution in a fair degree of purity. 

 Extraction of corn meal with 10-per-cent. salt 

 solution, after previous extraction with water, 

 dissolves the vitellinlike globulin, which can be 

 separated by the customary methods. So pre- 

 pared, it agrees exactly with the vitellin sepa- 

 rated by heat coagulation from the mixed 

 globulin. The third globulin present in the 

 maize kernel is characterized by extreme solu- 

 bility in very dilute salt solutions, especially 

 phosphates and sulphates. It separates from 

 such solutions only by a prolonged dialysis. It 

 coagulates in the neighborhood of 62 C., and 

 contains 15'2 per cent, of nitrogen and 1-26 per 

 cent, of sulphur. Through the long-continued 

 action of water or of strong solutions of salt, the 

 myosinlike globulin and the globulin with a 

 still lower content of nitrogen are changed into 

 insoluble modifications, soluble, however, in O5- 

 per-cent. sodium-carbonate solution, from which 

 they are precipitated on neutralization, appar- 

 ently as albuminates. So prepared, these insolu- 

 ble modifications are characterized by a relatively 

 high content of carbon. The aqueous extract 

 of corn meal and the sodium-chloride extract 

 contain, in addition to the globulins, apparently 

 two albuminlike bodies, more or less coagulable 

 by heat, but, as prepared, unlike in chemical 

 composition. A certain amount of proteose can 

 be detected in the extracts of corn meal after 

 the globulins and albumins have been entirely 

 removed, but this appears to be mainly an arti- 

 ficial product resulting from the hydrolysis of 

 one or more of the preceding bodies. Especially 

 noteworthy is the presence in the maize kernel 

 of a peculiar proteid body known as maize fibrin, 

 or better as zein, soluble in warm dilute alcohol, 

 but insoluble in water. Zein is characterized by 

 a high content of carbon, by its resistance to the 

 action of dilute alkalies (that is, non-converti- 

 bility into alkali-albuminate), and by the ease 

 with which it is converted into an insoluble 

 modification on being warmed with water or 

 with very weak alcohol. Soluble zein and the 

 insoluble modification have the same chemical 

 composition. Both respond to the ordinary pro- 

 teid reactions. 



The assertion having been made in a German 

 pharmaceutical journal ll'at aluminum was so 

 affected by certain liquids as to impair its utility 

 for purposes in which such substances may come 

 in contact with the human body, Prof. Lunge 

 made experiments from which he drew the con- 

 clusions that the action of coffee, tea, both of 

 which had been poured in hot. and beer, is zero, 

 or practically insignificant; that of brandy is 

 also slight, and that of acids and acid liquids 

 (wine, sour milk, fruit juices, etc.), is more pro- 

 nounced, but still so slight as to give no cause 



