54 Dr. F. W. Pavy. [June 8, 



that is now possessed, no difficulty is experienced in obtaining it in 

 any amount that may be required for the purpose of examination or 

 experiment. Coagulated egg-albumin, purified by water, was selected 

 as the most suitable representative form of proteid to serve for yield- 

 ing the product. 



The properties of the material obtained are as follows : 



In the dried state it forms a hard glassy resinoid mass. 



It is readily soluble in water, giving a clear solution. 



It yields no coloration with iodine. 



It possesses no CuO reducing power. 



Strong alcohol precipitates it. Spirit of 85 to 90 per cent, strength 

 precipitates it in great part, if not completely, as an adherent tena- 

 cious gummy mass, from which the alcohol may be decanted off, and 

 which may be afterwards worked up to form a sticky material. Abso- 

 lute alcohol, used freely, throws it down as a fine white precipitate 

 with no tendency to coalesce to a gummy mass. Upon the gummy 

 precipitate absolute alcohol exerts a dehydrating action, causing it 

 to harden and assume a crumbled, in place of a cohesive, state. With 

 spirit below 85 per cent, strength, precipitation becomes more and 

 more incomplete, and the precipitate produced by the weaker kind of 

 spirit assumes a loose or non-adherent form. The incomplete preci- 

 pitation with weak strengths is readily betrayed by the further pre- 

 cipitation which occurs upon adding more alcohol to the supernatant 

 spirit. 



In its physical characters, it presents a resemblance to Landwehr's 

 " animal gum." Chemically, it also resembles Landwehr's " animal 

 gum," in forming a copper compound on being treated with cupric 

 sulphate and caustic potash, from which it is susceptible of recovery 

 by the agency of nitric acid and subsequent precipitation with 

 alcohol. 



I have applied Landwehr's process to the product under considera- 

 tion derived from the action of potash upon albumin, and have found 

 that it behaves throughout like Landwehr's " animal gum," and 

 similarly yields a CuO reducing body. Moreover, I have found that 

 this CuO reducing body gives, with phenylhydrazine, needle 

 crystals of glucosazone, of which I have obtained micro-photo- 

 graphs. 



The product, it may be finally remarked, possesses the property of 

 diif usability, a character in which it differs from the amylose carbo- 

 hydrates starch, glycogen, dextrin. I have been unable to find any 

 statement about the diffusibility or otherwise of " animal gum," but 

 it is described as being a constant constituent of urine, which may be 

 regarded as indicative of its being of a diffusible nature. 



The CuO Reducing Product. By the action of mineral acids, the 

 first-formed product, of which I have been speaking, undergoes con- 



