PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



Camkitrg* Ijljibsopljixal Bmzty. 



February 6, 1882. 

 Professor Babington, Vice-President, in the chair. 



Mr E. J. Love, St John's College, was balloted for and duly 

 elected an Associate of the Society. 



The following communications were made to the Society : 



(1) On the Composition of Albumen, and the changes which 

 Leucine and similar bodies undergo in the animal system, by P. W. 

 Latham, M.D., Downing Professor of Medicine, Physician to 

 Addenbrooke's Hospital. 



The formula by which the composition of the proteids is 

 generally represented, viz. that of Lieberkuhn*, is 



C 72 H 112 N 1S 0, 2 S 



Schiitzenberger-f-, who devoted some three years to the analysis of 

 egg-albumen, gives as its composition 



^240 ^-W7 "^ 65 ^75 ^3 



These two formulas differ chiefly in the amounts of carbon and 

 sulphur ; for multiplying the first by 3|- we get 



^252 H-Wl "^ 63 ^77 ^s£ 



To resolve such a formula into one representing the proximate con- 

 stituents of a proteid seems at the first glance hopeless. The 

 following considerations, however, give us some help in the solution 

 of the problem : 



1. Several of the products which occur in or can be obtained 

 from the animal organism, such as lactic acid, leucine, benzoic acid, 



* Fownes, Manual of Chemistry, 1877, p. G25. 

 t Annales de Chimie, 1879, p. 384. 



VOL. IV. PT. IV. 13 



