March 22, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



463 



tions. The bloated masses are rigid and 

 rebound when dropped on a hard surface. 

 Although tendon is ordinarily very re- 

 sistant to any process of maceration, the 

 swollen masses produced by treatment with 

 acid may be readily minced in a hashing 

 machine. The hash thus produced forms 

 Avith water a clear viscid mass, the whole 

 of which may easily be pressed through 

 cheese cloth, and in which the gelatinous 

 particles are in great part indistinguish- 

 able. This viscid product bears a striking 

 superficial resemblance to egg white, so far 

 as consistency is concerned, but it lacks the 

 yellowish tinge of fresh egg white. When 

 such a viscid acid-tendon-water mixture is 

 made alkaline, or a swollen piece of acid- 

 tendon is dropped into dilute alkali, e. g., 

 half saturated lime water, transparency is 

 quickly lost and there is a rapid return to 

 the original white, opaque, fibrous condi- 

 tion of the material. This striking trans- 

 formation may be brought about with great 

 ease, even with pieces of tendon that have' 

 been immersed in acid for months. The 

 alkaline liquid contains practically all the 

 mucoid in the tissue. The collagen does 

 not appear to be gelatinized or particularly 

 dissolved. These facts furnish starting 

 points for improved methods of preparing 

 elastin, collagen and mucoid from ligament 

 and tendon. This particular study was 

 undertaken in an effort to discover the 

 chemical state of mucoid in connective 

 tissues. At present the results suggest a 

 union in the tissues between collagen and 

 glucoprotein. Further study of the phe- 

 nomena alluded to and numerous physico- 

 chemical influence on them, is in progress. 



On a Glucoprotein from Tendon that is 

 Non-precipitable by Acid: Wm. J. Gies. 

 Tendon yields a water-soluble, acid-re- 

 acting glucoprotein product that may be 

 extracted from that tissue with lime water, 

 and which is non-precipitable by acid from 



such extracts. It is possible that this prod- 

 uct is derived from the main mass of gluco- 

 protein in the extract when the latter is 

 acidified for precipitation of the traditional 

 mucoid. Extended comparative observa- 

 tions of elementary composition, reactions, 

 etc., will be made before an answer to this 

 question will be offered. 



New Studies of Mucoids and Nucleopro- 

 tein^: (1) Inorganic Salts; (2) Organic 

 Salts; (3) Color Compounds; (4) Quan- 

 titative Determination: Wm. J. Gies. 

 Numerous water-soluble salts of mucoids 

 and nucleoproteins have been made, such 

 as salts of calcium, tetraethylammonium 

 hydroxide, conine and azolitmine. As a 

 rule the acid protein combines readily with 

 the base, and the water-soluble compound 

 may be obtained from the filtrate by pre- 

 cipitation with alcohol. An elaborate study 

 of the chemistry of these compounds is now 

 under way, including experiments on the 

 electrical conductivity of the solutions, 

 with the cooperation of Messrs. W. H. 

 Welker, A. D. Emmett and J. Rosenbloom. 

 The electrolysis of the salts and their 

 pharmacological effects and various biolog- 

 ical relationships are also being studied. 

 It is impossible completely to precipitate 

 either mucoid or nucleoprotein from alka- 

 line tissue extracts by the usual acidifica- 

 tion process, even when the greatest care is 

 taken to prevent over-acidification. In the 

 case of mucoid, for example, a loss of 20 

 per cent, or more of the material usually 

 results with each precipitation by this 

 method. The portion of the mucoid that 

 is non-precipitable by acid may be precipi- 

 tated from the filtrate by treatment with 

 alcohol in moderate excess. All data here- 

 tofore obtained by various observers for 

 the quantitative contents of mucoid in 

 normal and abnormal tissues are incorrect 

 — probably invariably too low. Mr. C. B. 

 May is cooperating in a study of the quan- 



