86 THE CHEMISTRY OF THE TISSUES AND ORGANS. 



nuclein on gastric digestion ; (3) a globulin coagulating at 75 C. ; and 

 (4) alkali albumin. 



A good many years later, 1 I repeated these experiments ; and, like 

 Plosz, failed to find myosin. Myosin appears to be a specific constituent 

 of muscle, and has not been found anywhere else. The hardening that 

 occurs in the liver after death, and which is very slight, is possibly due 

 to the solidification of the fat in the cells ; though it is also quite possible, 

 as Plosz suggests, that if coagulation does occur in the cells with the 

 formation of a myosin-like clot, this takes place so rapidly that our 

 present methods do not enable us to separate its precursor from the cells. 



The proteids I obtained by the use of saline solutions were four in 

 number : 



1. A globulin (cell-globulin) coagulating at 45-50 C. 



2. A nucleo-proteid which coagulates at about 60 C., and is identical 

 with that obtainable by Wooldridge's acetic acid method from the cells. 

 It contains 145 per cent, of phosphorus. It does not become viscous on 

 admixture with neutral salts, and the sodium chloride method of 

 preparing nucleo-proteids is not applicable to it. It produces intra- 

 vascular coagulation. 



3. A globulin coagulating at 70 C. 



4. An albumin in mere traces, which coagulates at about the same 

 temperature. 



Other organic constituents of the liver cells. Urea, uric acid (especially 

 in birds), xanthine, and hypoxanthine, are found in the liver ; 2 leucine 

 and tyrosine are found in cases of acute yellow atrophy, and in 

 phosphorus poisoning. 3 Various other substances have been described 

 as occasional constituents. 4 



A substance called jecorin, containing phosphorus (C 106 H 186 N 6 SP 3 046), 

 was separated from the liver by Drechsel. 5 In its properties it some- 

 what resembles lecithin ; it, however, reduces Fehliiig's solution, which 

 lecithin does not. According to Baldi, 6 it occurs in many other organs 

 spleen, muscle, brain, etc. 



The question of the iron-containing nucleins of the liver (Zaleski's 

 hepatin, Schmiedeberg's ferratin, 7 etc.) is alluded to on p. 69. The 

 iron in the liver is increased in diseases, like pernicious ami-mia, which 

 lead to increased destruction of red blood corpuscles ; it is normally 

 greater in young (especially new-born) animals than in older ones. 

 Animals appear to enter the world with a store of iron in the liver, and 

 to a less degree in the spleen, which lasts them until they are able to 

 take foods other than milk, which is poor in iron. 8 



1 Journ. Physiol., Cambridge and London, 1892, vol. xiii. p. 806. 



a Scherer, Ann. d. Chem., Leipzig, Bd. cvii. S. 314 ; Cloetta, ibid., 13d. xcvii. S. 289. 



3 Sotnitschewsky, Ztschr. f. physiol. Chem., Strassburg, Bd. iii. S. 391; see also 

 Rohmann, Berl. klin. Wchnschr., 1888, S. 43 and 44. 



4 Guanine, inosite, scyllite (Frerichs and Stiideler, Mitth. d. Zurich, naiur. Gesellsch. 

 1858) ; cystine (Hoppe-Seyler, "Physiol. Chem.," S. 718) ; sarcolactic acid, probably formed 

 after death. 



5 Journ. /. prakt. Chem., Leipzig, Bd. xxxiii. S. 435. 



6 Arch.f. Physiol. , Leipzig, 1887, Suppl., S. 100. 



7 For recent work in ferratin and iron in the liver, and absorption of iron compounds 

 as food, see F. Vay, Ztschr. f. physiol. Chem., Strassburg, Bd. xx. S. 377 ; Weltering, 

 ibid., Bd. xxi. S. 186 ; Hall, Arch.f. Physiol., Leipzig, 1896, S. 49, 142; Cloetta, 

 Arch. /. exper. Path. u. PharmakoL, Leipzig, 1896, Bd. xxxiii. S. 6 ; Hochhaus and 

 Qnincke, ibid., S. 152 ; Quincke, ibid., S. 182. 



8 Meyer and Pern on, Ztschr. f. Biol., Miinchen, Bd. xxvii. S. 439; Lapicque, Compt. 

 rend. Soc. de biol., Paris, tome xli. p. 435. 



