SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 



OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 



FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



Pridat, October 2, 1908 



CONTENTS 

 Our Present Knotoledge of Plant Proteins: 

 Peofessor Thomas B. Osboene 417 



The Financial Status of the University Pro- 

 fessor in Germany 427 



The Oklahoma Geological Survey: Chas. N. 

 Gould 438 



The International Congress on Tuberculosis . . 438 



Organisation of a Biological Board 439 



Scientific Notes and News 440 



University and Educational News 443 



Quotations: — 

 An Educational Paradox 445 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Mathematics for Engineers: Professob W. 

 S. Franklin. What can be done to En- 

 hance the Value of the Work of the Bureau 

 of Standards to the Chemical Industries? 

 Latjncelot Andrews 446 



Scientific Books: — 



The Work of John Samuel Budgett : W. 

 Gierke's Popular History of Astronomy 

 during the Nineteenth Century: Stoebs B. 

 Barrett 452 



Scientific Journals and Articles 454 



Degeneration, Albinism and 

 Professor Chas. B. Davenport. The 

 Question of Cyclopia, One-eyed Monsters: 

 De. C. R. Stockaed 454 



MSS. Intended for publication and books, etc., Intended fov 

 leriev should be sent to the Editor of Scibncb, Garrison-en- 

 Hudson. N. Y. 



OUB PRESENT KNOWLEDGE OF PLANT 

 PROTEINS ' 



To the biological chemist few substances 

 present so many features of interest as the 

 proteins of plants. These lie at the very 

 foundation of the nutrition not only of 

 plants but of animals, and from them are 

 derived a multitude of products directly 

 connected with physiological processes. 

 The study of the chemistry of plant pro- 

 teins, although it early interested several 

 of the leading chemists of their time, has 

 received in the aggregate so little attention 

 that to-day our knowledge of this subject 

 is but slightly advanced beyond what may 

 properly be called a beginning. How slow 

 the progress has been may be shown by a 

 brief review of the literature that is on 

 record. 



HISTORICAL 



In 1746, Beccari announced his dis- 

 covery of a peculiar substance which he ob- 

 tained by washing wheat flour with water, 

 that had all the properties which up to 

 that time had been considered to be char- 

 acteristic of animal life only. This sub- 

 stance, which we now know to be wheat 

 gluten, appears to have been for more than 

 fifty years the only form of vegetable pro- 

 tein that was known, for Beccari failed to 

 obtain similar products from other seeds. 



In 1805, Einhof discovered that a part 

 of the gluten of wheat was soluble in 

 alcohol, and he described the existence of 

 similar proteins in rye and barley. Einhof 



' An address delivered before the American 

 Chemical Society at New Haven, Conn., July 1, 

 1908. 



