THE DECOMPOSITION PRODUCTS OF PROTEIDS. 33 



substance produced by the latter method, which should yield carbonic 

 anhydride on treatment with an alkali. As he considered it probable 

 that this substance might be basic, he endeavoured to isolate it as a 

 precipitate by means of phosphotungstic acid, a reagent which is of 

 great value as a precipitant of basic or alkaloidal bodies. By this means 

 he succeeded in isolating not one but two bases, which he named lysine 

 and lysatinine. 



Lysine has the formula C 6 H 14 N 2 2 , and is homologous with Jaffe's 1 

 ornithin (C 5 H 12 N 2 2 , probably diamidovalerianic acid). Lysine is pro- 

 bably diamidocaproic acid. On heating it to 120 130 with barium 

 hydrate, barium carbonate is formed. It will therefore account for some 

 of Schiitzenberger's carbonic anhydride. 



Lysatine or lysatinine, the second base, is even more interesting. 

 Its formula is either C H 13 N 3 2 or C 6 H U N 3 0, and is a homologue of 

 either creatine (C 4 H 9 N 3 2 ) or creatinine (C 4 H 7 N 3 0), according as the first 

 or second formula is taken. 



It can be obtained pure as a double salt of its nitrate with silver 

 nitrate, and this when boiled with barium hydrate for twenty-five 

 minutes yields urea ; this is a decomposition exactly analogous to that of 

 creatinine under the same circumstances. From 10 grms. of the 

 double salt Drechsel obtained about 1 grm. of urea ; which is a large 

 quantity when one considers that under the conditions urea is quickly 

 broken up into ammonia and carbonic anhydride. 



This is the first time that urea has been obtained from proteid in laboratory 

 experiments. Many years ago, Bechamp 2 stated that he had obtained urea 

 from egg-white by the oxidising action of potassium permanganate. Lossen 3 

 found that the substance Bechamp took for urea was guanidine, which 

 probably came from small quantities of xanthine, present in the egg-white as 

 an impurity, or, as Drechsel 4 points out, from lysatinine. DrechsePs method, 

 it is important to notice, is one of hydration ; not, like Bechamp's, one of 

 oxidation. 5 



It should be added that Drechsel's work was carried out in the first 

 instance with casein, but his pupils have discovered lysine and lysatinine 

 among the cleavage products of other proteids and proteid-like substances, 6 

 and further that the same substances are formed during pancreatic digestion. 7 



Hedin 8 has more recently arrived at the conclusion that lysatinine is not 

 a chemical individual, but a mixture of lysine with another base called 

 arginine. Arginine (C 6 H U N 4 2 ) was originally separated from vegetable 

 tissues by Schulze and Steiger, 9 and subsequently it was found by Hedin 10 



1 Ber. d. deutsch. chem. Gesellsch., Berlin, Bd. x. S. 1925. 

 -Ann. d. Chem., Leipzig, 1856, Bd. 100, S. 247. 



vesti^ 



1871, N.F., Bd. iii. S. 289 ; Tappeiner, 



rend. Acad. d. sc., Paris, tome Ixxiii. p. 1219 ; all of whom except Bitter failed to confirm 



Bechamp's results. 



4 Loc. cit. 



5 On the formation of nrea by oxidation from many organic substances, see F. Hofmeister, 

 Arch.f. exper. Path. u. PharmakoL, Leipzig, 1897, Bd. xxxvii. S. 426. 



6 Fischer (from gelatin), Inaug. Diss., Leipzig, 1890; Arch.f. Anat. u. Physiol., Leipzig, 

 1891, S. 205. Siegfried- (from conglutin), Ber. d. deutsch. chem. Gesellsch., Berlin, Bd. xxiv. 

 S. 418 ; (from reticulin), " Ueber d. chem. Eigenschaften des retic. Gewebes," Habilitation- 

 schrift, Leipzig, 1892. Siegfried also obtained from conglutin a sweet substance 

 (CgHT G N 2 4 ), corresponding to one of Schiitzenberger's gluco-proteins. 



7 Hedin, loc. cit. 8 Ztschr. f. physiol. Chem., Strassburg, 1896, Bd. xxi. S. 297. 



9 Ibid., Bd. xi. S. 43 ; Ber. d. deutsch. chem. Gesellsch., Berlin, Bd. xxiv. S. 2707 ; 1896, 

 Bd. xxix. S. 352. 



10 Ztschr. f. physiol. Chem., Strassburg, Bd. xx. S. 186 ; xxi. S. 155 ; xxii. S.I 91. 



VOL. I. 3 



