626 ORGANS OF GENERATION. 



MITJUKOFF * has isolated and investigated a colloid from an ovarial cyst. It 

 had the following composition: C 51.76, H 7.76, N 10.7 S 1.09, and 28.69 per 

 cent, and differed from mucin and pseudomucin by reducing FEHLING'S solu- 

 tion before boiling with acid. It must be remarked that pseudomucin, on boiling 

 sufficiently long with alkali, or by the use of a concentrated solution of caustic 

 alkali,- also splits and causes a reduction. This reduction is nevertheless weak 

 as compared with that produced after boiling with an acid. The body isolated 

 by MITJUKOFF is called paramucin. 



The pseudomucin as well as colloid are mucoid substances, and the 

 carbohydrate obtained from them is glucosamine (chitosamine), as espe- 

 cially shown by FK. MULLER, NEUBERG and HEYMANN. 2 From pseudo- 

 mucin ZANGERLE 3 obtained 30 per cent glucosamine, and NEUBERG and 

 HEYMANN have shown that the glucosamine is the only carbohydrate 

 regularly taking part in the structure of these substances. Still there are 

 reports as to the occurrence of chondroitin-sulphuric acid (or an allied 

 acid) in pseudomucin or colloid (PANZER), but this is not constant 

 according to the experience of HAMMARSTEN. 



As hydrolytic cleavage products of pseudomucin OTORI obtained, 

 besides carbohydrate derivatives such as levulinic acid and humus sub- 

 stances, leucine, tyrosine, glycocoll, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, valeric 

 acid, arginine, lysine, and guanidine. The quantity of guanidine, it 

 seems, was greater than that which could be derived from the arginine, 

 hence this body probably originated from another complex. PREGL* 

 obtained on the hydrolysis of a colloid, which behaved like paramucin, 

 no glycocoll and only traces of diamino acids, but otherwise the same 

 amino-acids as OTORI found, besides alanine, proline, phenylalanine and 

 tryptophane. 



The detection of metalbumin and paralbumin is naturally connected 

 with the detection of pseudomucin. A typical ovarial fluid containing 

 pseudomucin is, as a rule, sufficiently characterized by its physical proper- 

 ties, and a special chemical investigation is necessary only in cases where a 

 serous fluid contains very small amounts of pseudomucin. The pro- 

 cedure is as follows: The protein is removed by heating to boiling with 

 the addition of acetic acid; the filtrate is strongly concentrated and pre- 

 cipitated by alcohol. The precipitate, a transformation product of 

 pseudomucin, is carefully washed, with alcohol and then dissolved in water. 

 A part of this solution is digested with saliva at the temperature of the 

 body and then tested for glucose (derived from glycogen or dextrin). 

 If glycogen is present, it will be converted into glucose by the saliva; 

 precipitate again with alcohol and then proceed as in the absence of 



1 K. Mitjukoff, Arch. f. Gynakol., 49. 



2 Miiller, Verh. d. Naturf. Gesellsch. in Basel. 12, part 2; Neuberg and Heymann; 

 Hofmeister's Beitrage, 2. See also Leathes, Arch. f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 43. 



3 Munch, med. Wochenschr., 1900. 



4 Otori, Zeitschr. f/physiol. Chem., 42 and 43; Pregl, ibid., 58. 



