PROTAMINES. 109 



alanine 3.46, glycocoll 0.50, proline 1.46, phenylalanine 2.20, tyrosine 

 5.20, and glutamic acid 0.53 per cent. 



On pepsin digestion the histones, according to KOSSEL and PRINGLE l 

 yield so-called histone-peptone, which also contains 25 per cent of the 

 total nitrogen as arginine nitrogen. This histone-peptone differs from 

 the protamines in not giving a precipitate with proteid in neutral or 

 ammoniacal solution, but is precipitated in neutral reactions by sodium 

 pic rate. This property is used in its isolation. 



According to KOSSEL the histones are probably intermediate bodies 

 between the protamines and protein bodies on the demolition of the 

 latter, and if this be true, then it is not to be expected that a sharp dif- 

 ferentiation exists between histone and proteid, and for this reason it 

 is hardly possible for the present to give a precise definition for the 

 histones. 



The parahistone found by FLEROFF in the thymus gland yields so little basic 

 nitrogen that it probably does not belong to the histone group (KossEL and 

 KUTSCHER 2 ). 



Protamines. In close relation to the proteins stands a group of 

 substances, the protamines, discovered by MIESHER, which are desig- 

 nated by KOSSEL as the simplest proteins or as the nucleus of the pro- 

 tein bodies. Thus far they have been found only in combination with 

 nucleic acids in fish spermatozoa, 3 and the investigations of KOSSEL and 

 WEISS 4 have shown that the material from which the protamines are 

 formed, at least in the salmon, is the muscle proteid. The question has 

 been raised whether the protamines are true proteids or not, and whether 

 it would not be more correct to consider them as cleavage products of 

 proteid, or as fractious thereof. According to the generally accepted 

 view we will treat them as true proteids. 



Protamine was discovered by MIESCHER 5 in salmon spermatozoa. 



1 Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 49. 



2 Fleroff, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 28; Kossel and Kutscher, I.e. 



3 Nelson, Arch. f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 59, has recently shown that the body called 

 by him thymamin and prepared from the thymus glands, is a protamine, still he has 

 not given sufficient evidence of the protamine nature of the substance. 



4 Zeitschr. f . physiol. Chem., 52. 



5 In regard to protamines, see Miescher, Histochemische und Physiologische 

 Arbeiten, Leipzig, 1897; Piccard, Ber. d. deutsch. chem. Gesellsch., 7; Schmiedeberg, 

 Arch. f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 37; Kossel, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 22 (Ueber die 

 basischen Stoffe des Zellkerns), 25, 165 and 190, 26, 40, and 44, and Sitzungsber. der 

 Gesellsch. zur Beford. der ges. Naturwiss. zu Marburg, 1897; Berl. klin. Wochenschr., 

 1904; Kossel and Mathews, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 23 and 25; Kossel and Kutscher, 

 ibid., SI; Goto, ibid., 37; Kurajeff, ibid., 32; Morkowin, ibid., 28; Kossel and Dakin, 

 ibid., 40, 41, and 44; Maleniick, ibid. t 57; Nelson, Arch. f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 59. 



