66 CHEMISTRY OF THE PROTEIDS CHAP. 



Miescher and Schmiedeberg 1 were the first to suggest that pro- 

 tamin is formed from histon,e or ' Kernalbumose,' as they called it, 

 by a splitting off leucin and tyrosin. Kossel and Kutscher; 2 Ehrstrom, 3 

 and Kossel 4 have evolved the conception, that while in the salmon, the 

 albumin is converted into histone and the latter into protamin, the 

 change in the cod stops short at the histone-stage. 



By this change of albumin into protamin the mono-amino-acids are 

 removed, while reversely during poisoning with phosphorus, the hexone- 

 bases or di-amino-acids are eliminated. 



The nuclear proteids will be dealt with later, but attention may 

 be drawn here to the fact pointed out by Kossel, that the cell-nucleus 

 is especially rich in atomic chains, built up of alternate carbon and 

 nitrogen atoms, as, for example, in the 



Imido-azol ring. Pyrimidin ring. Arginin. 



*- N 



N N-C 



[In the alloxur bases ; probably ^^ 



also in histidin.*] 



thymin, cytosin.] y 



Because of the part which nuclei play in the new- formation of 

 organic tissues, Kossel believes these nitrogen-carbon chains to be 

 concerned in synthetic processes. He holds that they are either the 

 machinery which makes the amino-acids, or that they are intermediate 

 products on the road towards amino-acids. The histological proof 

 that the nucleus is concerned in synthetising albumins was brought 

 forward six years ago in the papers of L. H. Huie, working under the 

 author's care in the Physiological Laboratory, Oxford. 6 (See also p. 2.) 



If we take into account that the isolation of the mono-amino-acids 

 which form the main bulk of the albumin-molecule is accompanied 

 by considerable loss, we must not overlook the possibility of new un- 

 discovered groups existing in the albumin-molecule. Ammo-butyric 

 acid has already been mentioned, and E. Fischer throws out occasional 

 hints as to the existence of unknown substances. Great surprises are, 



1 Miescher and Schmiedeberg, Arch. f. exp. Pathol. u. Pharmak. 37. (1896) ; 

 Miescher's Histochemische und physiologische Arbeiten, pp. 412-413 (1897). 



2 Kossel and Kutscher, Zeitschr. f. physiol Chem. 31. 165 (1900). 



3 Ehrstrom, ibid. 32. 351 (1901). 4 Kossel, ibid. 44. 342 (1905). 



5 Pauly, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem. 42. 508 (1904). 



6 Lily H. Huie, Quart. Journ. of Micro sc. Science, 39. 387 (1896-97), and 42. 203 

 (1899). 



