[ApriIL 18, 1907 
AT AF 
598 NATURE 
of the year. Bristol, with a much smaller income, did | the second 
not spend it all, Dundee just about made both ends meet. 
Bedford College, London, had a small deficit. King’s | various preparation rooms. 
Colle London, with an income of 33,2821., managed to 
save 6181. University Colle London, spent rather more 
than its income. The coll at Newcastle had a deficit. 
Nottingham had been adopting a saving policy with a 
view to future developments, and arrived at the end of the 
year with a good balance. Reading spent more than it 
received, and Southampton was in want of money. 
Though the conditions have been modified to some extent 
since the year with which the report deals, there is still 
the same careful and economical management required at 
all these colleges, and desirable improvements and develop- 
ments have to be postponed for lack of funds. We hope 
it will not be long before the Government is able to provide 
more than 100,000]. for higher education, and that in- 
creased State aid will be supplemented by greater munifi- 
cence on the part of our men of wealth. 
A NEW era in the chemical department of the Scottish 
universities has been inaugurated by the erection of a 
chemical research laboratory at St. Andrews University 
by the munificence of Prof. Thomas Purdie, F.R.S., at a 
cost of about goool. Moreover, the 5o0ol. originally set 
aside by the University Court from the Carnegie trust | 
7 
floor is the professor’s laboratory for four 
workers, a library, museum, spacious lecture-room, and 
The progress of the University 
as a chemical research school has been rapid, for previous 
to 1884 the accommodation was altogether inadequate. 
Now the facilities for teaching and research are not 
behind those of any of the modern German institutions. 
Moreover, not only St. Andrews students, but other capable 
workers are welcomed. Working in conjunction with the 
professor or lecturer on organic chemistry, students qualify 
for various scholarships, e.g. the Berry, Carnegie, and 1851 
Exhibition scholarship, the research degree of London 
University, and the D.Sc. degree. The school has 
especially been noted for its work in optical activity and 
the chemistry of the sugars, but other subjects of biological 
interest have also been dealt with. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Lonpbon. 
Royal Society. December 6, 1906.—‘‘ The Chemistry of 
Globulin.”’ By William Sutherland. Communicated by 
Dr. C. J. Martin, F.R.S. 
The Purdie Chemical Research Laboratory, University of St. Andrews. 
quinquennial grant for buildings, &c., to aid in this work | 
has, by a subsequent arrangement of the Court and the 
Carnegie trust, been constituted an endowment for the 
upkeep of the chemical research department. A teaching 
chemical laboratory had previously been presented to the 
University by the generosity of Mrs. Thomas Purdie, late 
of Castlecliffe. The former occupants of the chair, viz. 
Profs. Connel and Heddle, were distinguished in their 
way, viz., the former in regard to the dew point and other 
subjects, and the latter in mineralogy and the chemistry 
of minerals, but chemical research proper dates from 
Prof. Purdie’s appointment in 1884, and has now been 
firmly established in the University. The substantial 
new building, which is seen in elevation in the accompany- 
ing illustration, provides still further facilities for post- 
graduate work. On the ground floor is a graduates’ re- 
search laboratory with ten benches, each with high- and 
low-pressure water-taps, electric light and power, and 
there are also balance, operation, physical and dark 
rooms. Ventilation, light and heat are perfect, so that 
On 
the workers are under the best possible conditions. 
NO. 1955, VOL. 75 
The author’s object in the present paper is first to 
establish simple formule for the more 
important of the experimental results 
obtained by Hardy and Mellanby, then to 
interpret these in their bearing upon the 
chemistry of globulin in connection with a 
theory of colloids, and finally to find the 
molecular mass (weight) of globulin. 
By expressing the experimental results of 
Hardy and Mellanby in simple formulz, it 
is shown that the solution of globulin and 
its precipitation take place under simple 
conditions of chemical equilibrium. For ex- 
ample, if p is the fraction of a globulin 
suspension dissolved in a salt solution the 
concentration of which is the fraction q of 
C that is required just to dissolve the whole 
of the suspension, we get equation (1) 
b(t—q)=Aq(1—p), in which A is the ratio 
of a velocity of solution to a velocity of 
precipitation. Mellanby’s discovery of the 
dependence of M/C on valency: and ionic 
velocity is applied to MA/C, M being mole- 
cular mass, and it is shown that when 
temperature varies, not only does MA/C 
depend upon. the viscosity of the solvent 
water, but also on a function of tempera- 
ture given in an equation which expresses 
the part played by globulin. It is note- 
worthy that this function has a minimum 
value about 40° C., near the temperature of 
warm-blooded animals. a 
For the precipitation of globulin by excess 
of (NH,),SO,, an equation is established, 
namely, p(1+p)=28-8(c—o-152), p being the 
fraction which the precipitated globulin is 
of the whole, and c the concentration of. 
the (NH,),SO, solution in grams per cubic  centi-. 
metre. 
Then follow formulz for the remarkable precipitation of 
globulin by acids from solution in neutral salts. From. 
these it appears that three compounds of globulin react in 
producing this precipitate. ; 
Section iv. is devoted to a theory of the colloidal state, 
namely, that a colloid consists of molecules which are 
chemically united neighbour to neighbour by the action of 
valencies which are usually latent. 
According to this chemical theory of the colloidal state, 
the term molecule ceases to have a useful meaning when 
applied to a colloid, so the term semplar is used to name 
that structure which is repeated like a pattern in three 
dimensions through a colloid. By suppression of the 
colloid-producing valencies of doublets, a mass of semplars - 
is caused to fall into a collection of separate molecules. 
In illustration of the usefulness of this theory, it is applied 
to show the dependence of the coagulating power of an 
ion on its valence. It is then applied also to explain the 
remarkable fact that the amount of globulin dissolved by 
