APP. i.] NEUMEISTER'S RESEARCHES ON THE ALBUMOSES. 485 



I. 



NEUMEISTER'S VIEWS CONCERNING THE ALBUMOSES, 

 AND THEIR RELATIONS. 



(Supplementary to pages 131 and 132.) 



AT page 131 of this book, a short space is devoted to an exposition 

 of R. Neumeister's views concerning the albumoses. Quite apart 

 from a mistake in print 1 (/?,0mi-deutero-albumose appearing instead 

 of cmfo'-deutero-albumose), the account there given conveys so meagre 

 and unsatisfactory an idea of the speculations of Neumeister, which 

 are based on painstaking and valuable researches 2 - 3 that the Author 

 here takes the opportunity of amplifying and amending it. 



Neumeister adopts the hypothesis which Kuhne advanced to 

 explain the facts discovered by Schiitzenberger (p. 116), and especially 

 by himself, viz. (refer to p. 119), that the albuminous molecule when 

 subjected to hydrolytic agencies splits up into simpler bodies which 

 belong to two distinct molecular groups a Aemi-group and an anti- 

 group which we may conceive actually to form part of the original 

 albuminous molecule. 



Neumeister, however, on the basis of actual experiment, has 

 endeavoured, firstly, to establish the successive stages in the degra- 

 dation of the albuminous molecule : secondly, to trace the relative 

 distribution of the hemi- and anti-groups in the several products of 

 decomposition : thirdly, to give a comprehensive schematic view of 

 the manner in which the decomposition may be conceived to pro- 



1 Six lines from the bottom of page 131. 



2 Richard Neumeister, ' Zur Kenntniss der Albumosen,' Zeitschrift f. Biologie, 

 Vol. xxin. (1887), pp. 381 401; 'Bemerkungen zur Chemie der Albumosen und 

 Peptone,' Ibid. Vol. xxiv. (1888), p. 267 ; 'Ueber die Reaktionen der Albumosen *und 

 Peptone,' Ibid. Vol. xxvi. (1890), pp. 324348. 



3 The subjoined papers are not so directly connected with the precise subject under 

 discussion as the three quoted above, but yet must be read by all interested in it, and 

 they complete (so far as is known to the Author) the list of Neumeister's scientific 

 contributions to the chemistry of the albumoses and peptones, if we except the account 

 which he has given in his talented Lehrbuch der physiologischen Chemie, Erster Theil, 

 Jena, 1893 : ' Ueber Vitellosen,' Zeitschrift f. Biologie, Vol. xxm. (1887), pp. 402411 ; 

 * Ueber die nachste Einwirkung gespannter Wasserdampfe auf Proteine und iiber 

 eine Gruppe eigenthiimlicher Eiweisskorper und Albumosen,' Ibid. Vol. xxvi. (1890), 

 pp. 5783 ; ' Zur Physiologic der Eiweissresorption und zur Lehre von den Peptonen,' 

 Ibid. Vol. xxvii. (1891), pp. 309374. 



