756 REPORT—1904. 
treated with boiling dilute mineral acids, given us five atomic groups: (1) Urea; 
(2) diamidovalerianic acid (combined with urea to form arginine); (3) serine ; 
(4) monoamidovalerianic acid; (5) pyrrolidincarboxylic acid. The relative 
proportions in which we have found these products of hydrolysis are approximate 
as follows:—Ten molecules diamidovalerianic acid, ten molecules urea, two mole- 
cules serine, one molecule monoamidovalerianic acid, two molecules pyrrolidin- 
carbonic acid. | 
The composition of clupein (from the spermatozoa of herring) we have found to 
be complicated by the presence of alanine, in addition to the constituents of sal- 
mine, so that we have six atomic groups and not only five, as in the case of 
salmine. 
On the other hand, scombrine, according to recent investigations carried out 
with Mr. H. D. Dakin, possesses an even simplercomposition. In addition to urea 
and diamidovalerianic acid we find only alanine and pyrrolidincarboxylic acid. 
Sturine, derived from the testes of the sturgeon, presents a different combina- 
tion. In this protamine two diamido acids are present, namely, diamidovaleri- 
anic acid and diamidocaproie acid, the former being combined with urea. To this 
complex already consisting of five groups, still another, a heterocyclic group, 
histidine, remains to be added. 
Among other members of this class of substances, which, however, are as yet 
incompletely investigated, are cyclopterine, which, in addition to urea and di- 
amidovaleric acid, contains tyrosine and other monoamido acids, also a- and 
B-cyprinine, which, so far as they have been examined qualitatively, resemble the 
other protamines, but nevertheless offer certain points of difference. 
The proteids, in the ordinary sense of the word, differ mainly from the prot- 
amines in the increased proportion of monoamido acids, The different groups I 
have enumerated, leucine, tyrosine, alanine, serine, diamidocaproic acid, one or 
other of which only occurs in certain protamines, are all found combined in the 
same proteid molecule, so that the complexity of molecule is extraordinarily great. 
This complexity is further increased by the addition of other groups, ey., dibasic 
acids, such as aspartic and glutamic acids, which are not present in the protamines, 
2. The Metabolism of different Carbohydrates. 
By Professor J. E. JoHannson. 
Professor Johannson’s experiments dealt with the rate of excretion of carbonic 
acid following the administration of various carbohydrates, and were conducted 
upon man in a respiration chamber. He first showed that for a particular 
‘individual the rate of excretion was practically constant if taken some hours after 
a meal, and that this rate did not vary with differences in the previous diet 
nor at different periods of the year. Tf, then, an individual is given a quantity of 
a particular carbohydrate about eight hours after a meal, the amount of increase 
-in CO, excreted is to be assigned to the food given. He showed in this way that 
an increase of CO, followed the administration of glucose, saccharose, or levulose, 
and that this increase, which amounted on the whole to from 8 per cent. to 20 
per cent. of the total carbon given, began within the first half hour and lasted 
from two to three hours. The increase persisted longer after saccharose or leyu- 
lose than after dextrose, and the total amount was greater. He further showed 
that the amount of the CO, surplus was in proportion to the amount of carbo- 
hydrate given, if this did not exceed 150 grams. The effect of adose of sugar was 
greatly influenced by the previous state of nutrition of the person experimented 
upon. Thus, after a fasting period of forty hours the amount of carbon retained 
was much greater than after a ten hours’ period. A further point of interest was 
that the amount and rate of destruction of the various sugars were not influ- 
enced by the performance of work. The two effects were additive, and did not 
interfere with one another. 
