EXPERIMENTAL. 105 



names gluten-fibrin. Martin further says that gluten dissolves almost com- 

 pletely in 0.2 per cent hydrochloric acid or 0.2 per cent potassium-hydroxide 

 solution, leaving a small residue of fat. The solution gives a copious pre- 

 cipitate when neutralized, but the supernatant liquid still contains a quantity 

 of protein which is the dissolved insoluble albumose. The whole of the 

 gluten-fibrin is reprecipitated by neutralization that is, it is wholly con- 

 verted into an albuminate. 



Martin states that by extracting flour with 76 to 80 per cent alcohol only 

 fat is removed. This statement is certainly erroneous, for the writer has 

 never failed in many experiments thus to extract this substance (gliadin) 

 from the flour, and that, too, in the same amount and of the same properties 

 and composition as from the gluten. 



Martin concludes that insoluble albumose is not present as such in the 

 flour. He then says : 



Before proceeding to mention its precursor, it will be well to state that 10 per cent 

 sodium-chloride solution extracts from flour a large quantity of globulin and of albumose. 

 This globulin is of the myosin type, coagulating between 55 and 60 C. , and precipitated 

 by saturation with sodium chloride and ammonium sulphate. Both the globulin and 

 albumose are present in a much smaller quantity in the watery extract of the flour. 



From this it is evident that Martin has fallen into the same error as Weyl 

 & Bischoff, mistaking the albumin for a myosin-like globulin, and being 

 greatly misled as to its amount. Continuing, Martin says : 



The direction of the evidence is to show that the insoluble albumose is formed from 

 the soluble. Moreover, I think that the globulin is transformed into the gluten-fibrin, 

 for I have been able to obtain from the globulin in solution a body having the same 

 reactions as the gluten-fibrin. 



What this evidence is which by its direction shows that the insoluble 

 albumose is derived from the soluble is not clear, and Martin makes no 

 further statements on this point. That a body should be obtained from the 

 solution containing the globulin which had the same reactions as the 

 " gluten- fibrin " is not surprising, for the insoluble products derived from 

 nearly all globulins have no characteristic reactions, being merely soluble 

 in dilute acids and alkalis and precipitated by neutralization in the same 

 way as " gluten-fibrin." Martin then states his theory of the formation of 

 gluten in the following scheme : 



PI . /Gluten-fibrin precursor, globulin. 



~ 1 Insoluble albumose precursor, soluble albumose. 



This can not be a correct representation of the formation of gluten, for it 

 has been shown to be founded on two erroneous observations first, that 

 alcohol does not extract protein matter from the flour when applied directly, 

 and, second, that at least one-half the protein matter of the seed is a myosin- 

 like globulin. 



