x THE NUCLEO-PROTEIDS 453 



has shown for Drosera rotundifolia, Trambusti 1 for Spelerpes, 

 Galeotti 2 for the same amphibian, and the author for mammalian 

 salivary glands and intestinal cells (unpublished observations), that 

 the zymogen-granules which ultimately are converted into ferments 

 are of nuclear origin. 



To this group of substances belong also those tissue-albumins 

 which accelerate coagulation, 3 the tissue-fibrin ogen of Wooldridge and 

 the cytoglobulin and prseglobulin of Alexander Schmidt. The 

 effects produced by the injection of nucleo-proteids, obtained by 

 Halliburton's method from the thymus and from lymph glands, have 

 been carefully studied by Macwilliam, Mackie, and Murray, 4 and 

 Mandel 5 has investigated the part played by alloxur-bases in pro- 

 ducing fever during aseptic conditions. 



The enterokinase of the intestinal mucous membrane, according to 

 Stassano and Billon, 6 has also the nucleo-proteid attached to it, and 

 Galeotti 2 and Hahn 7 found the nucleo-proteids to be the carriers of 

 the immunising substances of the bacterial cells. Lustig 8 has isolated, 

 by a chemical process not divulged, nucleo-proteids from the cholera-, 

 pest-, and anthrax bacilli, the micrococcus urese and micrococcus pro- 

 digiosus, etc. He finds that nucleo-proteids react as do living bacteria, 

 as far as intra-cellular toxins are concerned. 



Cohnheim says : " That the ordinary nucleo-proteids are the fer- 

 ments themselves does not follow from what has just been stated, for 

 it has been proved that the digestive ferments are separate bodies, 

 while it is possible that the fibrin ferment and nucleo-proteid may be 

 one and the same substance. The observation of Tichomiroff 9 that 

 nucleic acid precipitates ricine, tetanus, and diphtheria toxins is in this 

 connection very interesting. It is specially pointed out that the very 

 abundant occurrence of nucleo-proteids must not be taken as a proof 

 in itself that they possess an important biological function, for they 



1 Arnaldo Trambusti, Lo Sperimentale, anno 49 (Sezione Biologica, fasc. 3. (1895), 

 (here the older literature). 



2 Gino Galeotti, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem. 25. 48 (1898). 



3 A. Neumann, Arch.f. (Anat. u.) PhysioL, Physiol. Abteil. 1898, p. 374 ( Verhandl. 

 der Berliner physiol. Gesellschaft}. 



4 J. A. Macwilliam, A. H. Mackie, and C. Murray, Journ. of PhysioL 3O. 381 

 (1904). 



5 A. R. Mandel, Amer. Journ. of Physiol. 10. 452 (1903). 



6 H. Stassano and F. Billon, Compt. rend. Soc. de Biologic, 54. 623 (1902). 



7 M. Hahn, 'On the Chemical and Immunising Properties of the Plasmins,' 

 Verhandl. d. 4. internation. physiol. Kongresses zu Cambridge, Journ. of Physiol. 23. 

 Suppl. p. 45 (1898). 



8 A. Lustig, Archivio di Fisiologia, 1. 336 (1904). 



9 M. Tichomiroff, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem. 21. 90 (1895). 



