On the Intimate Associations of Inokganic Ions with 

 ]S[ative and Derived Proteins. — By David Fraser 

 Harris, M. D., D. Sc, ~F. R. S. E., Professor of Physiology 

 and Histology,, Dalhousie University, Halifax.* 



Read 8th April, 1912. 



We must assume that unless united to the living molecules 

 (biogens) no food would be assimilated, no drug benefit us, and 

 no poison harm us. We must have some sort of union, incor- 

 poration or molecular linking, and that cannot be outside the 

 sphere of atomic affinities. Protoplasm must be chemically 

 viewed as an unstable, molecular, protein complex to which, 

 probably as side-chains, adhere carbohydrate molecules and fat 

 molecules and many inorganic ions both anions and cations. 

 The unmasking of this fat is called in pathology "fatty degener- 

 ation," the unloosening of this sugar is called tissue-diabetes. 

 We have fat necrosis after certain poisonings; for instance, 

 phosphorus and alcohol can unmask fat in many tissues of a 

 persons the very opposite of obese, while after chloroform or an 

 excessive percentage . of carbon dioxide in the blood we have 

 glycohaemia and the consequent glycosuria which means that 

 the poison has displaced the sugar and sent it into the blood- 

 stream. But further, a salt-free (ash-free) protoplasm, that is, 

 salt-free living protein is only a conception of the chemists ; 

 protein is ash-free only in the laboratory, ISTo doubt these ionic 

 side-chains constitute mere traces, but as inorganic substances 

 they play an exceedingly important part in the activities and 

 existence of living matter. A salt-free diet will not support 

 life. Dogs fed on ash-free fats, carbohydrates and proteins 

 were moribund in twenty-six to thirty-six days. 



* Contributions from the Science Laboratories of Dalhousie University 

 [Physiology]. 



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