ALBUMEN. 183 



Albumen was analyzed by Gay-Lussac and Thenard, by Mi- 

 chaelis and by Prout. Gay-Lussac and Thenard merely dried 

 the white of an egg in the temperature of 212, and analyzed it 

 without any attempt to purify it.* Dr Prout employed albumen 

 from the serum of the blood of a patient labouring under a slight 

 inflammation. Mulder has made a more recent analysis, and 

 took the precaution to purify his albumen by the process de- 

 scribed at the beginning of this section. Hence it would be free 

 from a small portion of mucus, which is known to exist in the 

 white of egg. The result of all these analyses will be seen in the 

 following table : 



Michaelis. Mulder. 



Gay-Lussac From arte- From venous White of Serum of 



& Thenard. rial blood. blood. Prout. egg. blood. 



Carbon, . 52-883 53 009 52-660 49-750 53-960 54-398 



Hydrogen, 7-540 6-993 7-350 7-775 7-052 7-024 



Azote, 15-705 15-562 15-505 15-550 15-696 15-843 



Oxygen, 23-872 24-436 24-484 26-925 23-292 22-744 



100- 100- 100- 100- 100- 100- 



But Mulder has more recently subjected albumen to a new 

 analysis, and determined the phosphorus and sulphur which it 

 contains. The following are his results :f 



100- 100- 



He represents its constitution by the formula, 10 (C 40 H 31 Az 5 

 O 12 ) -f Ph -f S 2 , or ten atoms protein united to one atom phos- 

 phorus and two atoms sulphur. If we calculate from this formula 

 we get, 



400 atoms carbon, = 300 or per cent 54*33 



310 atoms hydrogen, = 38-75 ... 7*02 



50 atoms azote, = 87-50 ... 15-84 



120 atoms oxygen, =120-00 ... 2173 



* Recherches Physico-Chemiques, ii. 331. f Ann. der Pharm. xxviii. 74. 



