SALTS OF ALBUMIN WITH BASES 97 



the free alkali is superfluous. The following table gives the 

 results of work by Pauli and O. Falek (loc. tit.) : 



Table 44. 



The effects are substantially the same as those found by 

 Pauli and Handovsky with acid albumin, and can be referred 

 to the maximum in the ionisation which later measurements by 

 the electrometric and electrophoretic methods have certainly 

 shown to exist. In applying the same conception to Schorr's 

 results for viscosity, however, the objection may be urged that 

 although they may have been carefully corrected for the 

 variations in the albumin solution due to lapse of time, the 

 decrease in viscosity in higher concentrations of alkali may 

 be due to the formation of decomposition products of 

 lower molecular weight. This objection, however, is not sup- 

 ported by the results of precipitation of alkali albumin by 

 alcohol. 



The fact that with increasing quantities of alkali the precipi- 

 tation produced by alcohol passes through a minimum and then 

 increases again cannot be explained except on the assumption 

 of the formation of neutral particles. This result, moreover, is 

 exactly analogous to that obtained with acid albumin, and as 

 the precipitation was made immediately after mixing the alkali 

 and the protein there is no time for any profound proteolysis. 

 The minimum of precipitation practically coincides with the 

 region of highest viscosity. The results given below were 

 obtained by adding ten times the volume of alcohol to the 

 mixture of alkali and protein, which is somewhat diluted by the 

 water present in the 95 per cent, alcohol employed. 



