104 THE PROTEINS OF THE WHEAT KERNEL. 



the influence of a ferment by which gluten results. If the statements of 

 these investigators are examined no evidence will be found to support their 

 view. What their reasons were for concluding that ' ' myosin ' ' formed 

 nearly all the protein of the wheat kernel does not appear. In view of 

 the results obtained by the writer, this statement is certainly erroneous. 

 Direct treatment of the meal with alcohol yielded extracts containing gliadin 

 in exactly the same amount as obtained from the gluten made from an equal 

 quantity of flour, and extraction of either flour or gluten with alcohol, after 

 complete exhaustion with sodium-chloride solution, also gave the same pro- 

 portion of gliadin. This substance must therefore have existed in the seed, 

 and, as it forms one-half of the gluten, it leaves the other half only as 

 possibly derived from a globulin body through the influence of a ferment. 

 If Weyl & Bischoff's view were correct, treatment of the flour with 10 per 

 cent salt solution ought to alter the character and quantity of the gluten 

 obtained, if not altogether to prevent its formation. This is not so, for the 

 usual amount of gluten can readily be obtained from flour made into dough 

 with loper cent sodium-chloride solution and then washed with the same 

 until starch is removed. 



Weyl & Bischoff next state that " with the aid of a 15 per cent rock-salt 

 solution the flour was extracted until no protein could be detected in the 

 extract; the residue of the meal kneaded with water then gave no gluten. 

 If the globulin substance is extracted, no formation of gluten takes place. ' ' It 

 has been found that this is true if the flour is stirred up with a large quantity 

 of salt solution, extracted repeatedly with fresh quantities of the same solu- 

 tion until no more protein is dissolved, and the excess of solution removed 

 by allowing the residue to drain on a filter as completely as possible. If, 

 however, wheat flour is mixed at first with just sufficient salt solution to 

 make a firm dough, this dough may be washed indefinitely with salt solution, 

 and will yield gluten as well and as much as if washed with water alone. 

 This difference is due to the fact that when large quantities of salt solution 

 are applied at once the flour fails to unite to a coherent mass and can not after- 

 ward be brought together, as is possible when treated with smaller quantities 

 of solution. 



Weyl & Bischoff then compare the formation of gluten to that of blood- 

 fibrin from fibrinogen under the influence of a ferment. 



Sidney Martin next advanced a somewhat similar theory of the formation 

 of gluten from the proteins contained in the seed. He states that alcohol 

 extracts from gluten but one protein substance ; that this is soluble in hot 

 water, but not in cold, and he therefore calls it an insoluble phytalbumose. 



The residue of the gluten not dissolved by alcohol is uncoagulated pro- 

 tein, if the alcohol has not been allowed to act too long. This substance he 



