vin THE EFFECT OF SUBLIMATE ON ALBUMIN 315 



5 per cent double salt solution to the tubes D, E, and F, when an 

 increase in the amount of opalescence was observed. 



EXPERIMENT 11 



To determine the effect of a 10 per cent watery solution of the 



double salt HgCl 2 + 2 NaCl. 



ABODE 



10 per cent double salt 10 8 6 4 2 



Water .... 2 4 6 8 

 Albumin .... 11111 



After twenty-four hours all test-tubes had a milky opalescent 

 appearance, the tube C being the most milky because the specific 

 gravity of this fixing solution was primarily equal to that of the 

 albumin solution, and for this reason also no sediment was formed. 

 In the remaining four tubes the sediment diminished slightly in this 

 order, E, D, B, A. 



That sublimate in the presence of sodium chloride loses its 

 coagulating power and therefore also its toxicity is well shown by 

 the investigations of Paul and.Kronig, 1 who found that the number 

 of colonies of bacteria increased with the amount of salt which was 

 added to a sublimate solution. Subsequently Paul and Sarwey 2 

 showed that sublimate is less dissociated in high percentage ethyl 

 alcohol than in methyl alcohol, and that alcohols greatly interfere with 

 its power of dissociating and therefore with disinfection. 



If we take all the factors into consideration it seems to the 

 author that the union of the heavy metals with albumins is, in the 

 case where metallic salts undergo hydrolysis, primarily an oxidative 

 process, the metallic oxide, for example, HgO, uniting with some 

 carbon-atom, analogous to the union of the unsatisfied oleic acid 

 with osmium tetroxide. 3 While in those cases where metallic salts 

 do not undergo hydrolysis, as in the case AgN0 3 , the primary change 

 is a union of the N0 3 -ion with the amino-group of the albumin, while 

 the union of the Ag-ion with the albumin is only made possible by 

 the conversion of the Ag-ion into the oxide. (See p. 342 under 

 Schadee van der Does.) 



1 Paul| and Krdnig, Zeitschr. f. physikal. Chem. 21. (1896) ; Munchener med. 

 Wochensch. 1897 ; Zeitschr. f. Hygiene, 25. (1897). 



2 Theod. Paul and Otto Sarwey, Munchener mediz. Wochensch. 1901, No. 36, 

 37, 38. 



3 Mann, Physiological Histology, 1902, pp. 303-311. 



