290 PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY. 



typical ropy property. Its solutions do not coagulate on boiling 

 but only become milky-opalescent. Unlike mucin solutions, 

 pseudomucin solutions are not precipitated by acetic acid. With 

 alcohol they give a coarse flocculent or thready precipitate which 

 only dissolves in water or alcohol after having been kept in these 

 liquids for a long time. 



Paralbumin is another substance discovered by SCHERER and 

 which occurs in ovarial liquids and also in ascites fluids with the 

 simultaneous presence of ovarial cysts and rupture of the same. It 

 is therefore only a mixture of pseudomucin with variable amounts 

 of albumin, and the reactions of paralbumin are correspondingly 

 variable. 



The detection of metalbuinin and paralbumin is naturally con- 

 nected with the detection of pseudomucin. A typical ovarial fluid 

 containing pseudomucin is, as a rule, sufficiently characterized 

 by its physical properties, and a special chemical investiga- 

 tion is only necessary in cases where a serous fluid contains very 

 small amounts of pseudomucin. We proceed in the following way: 

 The albumin is removed by heating to boiling with the addition 

 of acetic acid; the filtrate is strongly concentrated and precipitated 

 by alcohol. The precipitate is carefully washed with alcohol 

 and then dissolved in water. A part of this solution is digested 

 with saliva at the temperature of the body and then tested for glu- 

 cose (derived from glycogen or dextrin). If glycogen is present, it 

 will be converted into glucose by the saliva; precipitate again with 

 alcohol and then proceed as in the absence of glycogen. In this 

 last-mentioned case, first add acetic acid to the solution of the 

 alcohol precipitate in water so as to precipitate any existing mucin. 

 The precipitate produced is filtered, the filtrate treated with 2# 

 HC1 and warmed on "the water-bath until the liquid is deep brown 

 in color. In the presence of pseudomucin this solution gives 

 TROMMER'S test. 



The other proteid bodies which have been found in cystic 

 fluids are serum-globulin and serum-albumin) peptone (?), mucin, 

 and mucin-peptone (?). Fibrin only occurs in exceptional cases. 

 The quantity of mineral bodies on an average amount to about 

 10 p. m. The amount of extractive bodies (cholesterin and urea) 

 and fat is ordinarily 2-4 p. m. The remaining solids, which con- 

 stitute the chief mass, are albuminous bodies and pseudomucin. 



The intraligamentary, papillary cysts contain a yellow, yellowish- 



