EXPERIMENTAL. 



103 



and also in the original flours. The washings of the glutens were collected 

 in jars and allowed to settle, the sediments washed with water and with 

 very strong alcohol and dried and weighed. The nitrogen in each was then 

 determined. The results of these determinations and deductions drawn 

 from them are given in table 20. 



TABLE 20. Amount of the various proteins of the wheat kernel. 



THE FORMATION OF GLUTEN. 



Wheat, so far as known, is the only plant whose seeds contain protein 

 matter separable in a coherent form from the other constituents by washing 

 with water. When ground fine and mixed with a suitable quantity of water, 

 it yields a dough from which a light, porous bread can be made. The im- 

 portance of this fact in bread-making is so great that considerable attention 

 has been paid to gluten by the chemists who have studied wheat proteins. 



Reference has already been made (p. 45) to the statements of Weyl & 

 Bischoff that the protein matter of the wheat kernel is chiefly a globulin sub- 

 stance, which in contact with water undergoes a change, presumably through 



