BACTERIAL CELLULAR SUBSTANCE 67 



color with iodine even after treatment with sulphuric acid. 

 A portion was dried, and heated with soda lime, when it 

 evolved a gas which turned red litmus paper blue, thus 

 indicating nitrogen which had been reduced to ammonia. 

 The odor of burning feathers also indicated the presence 

 of nitrogen. From these results it was concluded that the 

 residue left after extraction of the cellular substance with 

 10 per cent, potassium hydroxide at 120 contains a car- 

 bohydrate, but there is nothing to indicate that it is cellu- 

 lose. Leach made a search for cellulose in the cells of the 

 colon bacillus, with like negative results. 



There are two carbohydrate bodies in bacterial cellular 

 substances. One of these furnishes a reducing sugar after 

 being boiled with dilute mineral acid, while the other does 

 not. The former may be extracted from the cells with 

 either alkali or acid, better with the former. In Wheeler's 

 studies of sarcina lutea the portion soluble in 10 per cent, 

 potassium hydroxide was filtered through paper, acidified 

 with hydrochloric acid, and treated with three volumes of 

 95 per cent, alcohol, which produced an abundant white, 

 curdy, sticky precipitate. Precipitation by means of 

 alcohol with acetic and picric acids was also tried, but did 

 not prove satisfactory. Purification was attempted by 

 repeated solution and precipitation with acidified alcohol, 

 but the quantity was diminished each time on account of 

 its relative solubility in dilute alcohol. After filtering, 

 washing, and drying in an atmosphere of carbon dioxide, 

 the powder obtained weighed only 0.7872 grams. It con- 

 tained phosphorus, responded to the carbohydrate test, 

 and reduced Fehling's solution after prolonged boiling with 

 dilute mineral acid. Its phosphorus content was deter- 

 mined and found to be 0.861 per cent., which is too low to 

 indicate the presence of nucleic acid or nuclein in anything 

 like a pure condition. The same investigator at one time 

 took 300 grams of the colon germ substance and heated 

 on the water-bath with six liters of 2 per cent, potassium 

 hydroxide. The extract was filtered through paper and 

 acidified with acetic acid. The precipitate produced, 



