16 POISONOUS PROTEINS 



drate test with alphanaphthol. Cellulose could 

 not be detected by any known test. Schweit- 

 zer's reagent failed to dissolve it and it gave no 

 color with iodine even after treatment with sul- 

 phuric acid. A portion was dried and heated 

 with soda lime when it evolved a gas which 

 turned red litmus paper blue, thus indicating 

 the presence of nitrogen which had been re- 

 duced to ammonia. The odor of burning feath- 

 ers also indicated the presence of nitrogen. 

 From these results we conclude that there is no 

 evidence of the presence of cellulose in bacte- 

 rial cellular substance. Leach made search for 

 cellulose in the cells of the colon bacillus with 

 like negative results. Like Vincenzi we did find 

 a nitrogenous carbohydrate. This is chitin or 

 some chitin-like substance. The presence of 

 chitin in bacterial cell substance has been re- 

 ported by Ivanoff, Emmerling, Helbin, Bulloch, 

 and others. 



My students and I have found two carbohy- 

 drates in bacterial cellular substance. One, re- 

 ferred to above, is combined with nitrogen, is 

 not soluble in strong alkali, and does not reduce 

 Fehling's solution even after prolonged boiling 

 with dilute mineral acids. The second carbo- 

 hydrate is combined with phosphorus, is soluble 

 in alkali, and does reduce Fehling's solution 



