BACTERIAL PROTEINS 21 



simple proteins. This certainly is not true even 

 if it should prove that I have overestimated the 

 size of these protein molecules. 



Tamura working in KosseFs laboratory has 

 made a contribution to the chemistry of bac- 

 teria. He used cellular material obtained from 

 the bacillus tuberculosis and mykobacterium 

 lacticola perrugrosum. Both of these were 

 grown in glycerine-broth cultures for five 

 weeks, then collected on filters and washed with 

 ether and alcohol. Tamura states that all the 

 fats and waxes cannot be removed in this way 

 and he resorted to the following method : After 

 partial extraction with ether and alcohol the 

 bacterial cells were rubbed up in a mortar with 

 two parts of sulphuric acid and one of water 

 and from this mass extraction with ether and 

 alcohol was continued. From these extracts 

 Tamura obtained along with the well known 

 fatty acids diamino monophosphatide, a sub- 

 stance which has been previously found in egg- 

 yolk, muscle, and brain. Tamura thinks that 

 this body has been mistaken for lecithin by other 

 investigators working with ether and alcohol 

 extracts of bacteria. In these extracts Tamura 

 has furthermore detected a higher alcohol, 

 which he names "mykol" and to which the 

 "acid fast" properties of these bacteria are 



