336 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 583. 



On the Decomposition of Thymus Nucleic 

 Acid by an Extract of Pig's Spleen: 

 "Walter Jones. 



1. Fresh dog's spleen converts guanine 

 into uric acid, the ferments of this spleen 

 not being different from those of ox spleen. 



2. By the action of an aqueous extract 

 of pig's spleen on thymus nucleic acid 

 guanine is produced in considerable quan- 

 tity; xanthine, not at all. 



Concerning Peptone: L. B. Stookey. 



This paper is a continuation of a study 

 of peptone carried out in the laboratory of 

 Professor Hofmeister. One of the frac- 

 tions, designated as 'I B Benzoyl Chloride 

 y' has been investigated further. This 

 substance gives the following reactions: 

 Biuret, Molisch and an extremely faint 

 xanthoproteic. Hopkins and Millon are 

 negative. Sulphur is not present. Five 

 grams were boiled with five per cent, sul- 

 phuric acid until the Biuret reaction dis- 

 appeared. A residue remained. This 

 residue gave the Molisch reaction more in- 

 tensely than the original substance. It is 

 not impossible that the residue was glu- 

 cosamine benzoyl chloride. The filtrate was 

 examined in the usual manner. Neither 

 arginine nor histidine could be detected. 

 Lysine was present and was identified as 

 the picrate. Neither aspartic nor glutamic 

 acid could be found. Alanine was isolated 

 and identified as a copper salt. On ac- 

 count of the small amount of substance ex- 

 amined, these findings can not be looked 

 upon as conclusive ; yet the fact that a con- 

 densation product of two benzoyls, one ly- 

 sine, one glucosamine and one alanine would 

 have the following composition: C 57.80 

 per cent., N 9.30 per cent., H 6.31 per 

 cent., 26.57 per cent., while this fraction 

 gave as follows: C 58.68 per cent., N. 8.96 

 per cent., H 5.88 per cent., 26.48 per 

 cent., may be regarded as suggestive and 



might indicate a molecular formula of 



On the Composition and Toxic Properties 

 of Ibervillea Sonorw: Julia A. Emerson 

 and W. H. Welker. 



The Comparative Chemical Composition 

 of the Hair of Different Races: P. B. 

 Hawk and T. A. Rutherford. 



On the Chemical Composition of the Nasal 

 Mucous Membrane: B. Russell and 

 Wm. J. Gibs. 



The following percentage data on general 

 composition represent average results of 

 analyses of tissue from many oxen: 



The quantity of ether-soluble material is 

 equal to about 8 per cent, of the solid mat- 

 ter. Reducing substance was absent from 

 the aqueous extracts. Neither proteolytic 

 nor amylolytic enzymes have thus far been 

 detected. Autolytic changes will be in- 

 vestigated. 



Much of the proteid in the tissue dis- 

 solves in water and salt solutions. Succes- 

 sive extractions of the fresh tissue in water, 

 5 per cent, sodium chloride and 0.5 per cent, 

 sodium carbonate yielded solutions from 

 which the following quantities of pure pro- 

 teid (in terms of percentage of fresh tissue) 

 were precipitated : water, 4 per cent. ; so- 

 dium chloride, 2 per cent. ; sodium carbon- 

 ate, 0.5 per cent. A collagenous residue, 

 amounting to 10.5 per cent, remained. 



Conspicuous among the soluble proteids 

 present in the extracts is an acid-precip- 

 itable material, equal to about 2 per cent, 

 of the fresh tissue. Its properties have 

 not yet been distinguished in detail. It 



