THE VOLATILE PART OF PLANTS. 97 



of fibrinogen. Coagulation here appears to be induced 

 by a ferment whose eflEect is suspended by strong saline 

 solutions, but is renewed when these are mixed with 

 much water. This ferment occasions decomposition of 

 the fibrinogen, fibrin being one of the products. Tlie 

 fibrin-ferment is supplied from ruptured white blood- 

 corpuscles. The chemical composition of fibrinogen and 

 fibriu, as determined by analysis, is quite the same. 



Myosin. — Lean beef or other dead muscle-tissue, after 

 mincing and washing with water to remove coloring mat- 

 ters, is soaked in 10 per cent salt-solution. Myosin dis- 

 solves and is precipitated from the filtered brine by diluting 

 with water. It dissolves also in dilute hydrochloric acid 

 and in dilute potash solution. Strong hydrochloric acid 

 converts it into syntonin. Myosin does not exist in liv- 

 ing muscle, but is formed after death, during rigor mor- 

 tis, from the juices of the muscles by a process of coag- 

 ulation. Its formation is accompanied by the develop- 

 ment of lactic and carbonic acids. Myosin is the chief 

 ingredient of what was formerly known as muscle-fibrin. 



Vegetable Globulins occur abundantly in seeds where 

 they are chief ingredients of the so-called aleurone or 

 protein-granules. From these protein-granules, or from 

 the pulverized seeds, the globulins are extracted by salt- 

 solutions and by weak alkalies. The globulin which 

 water alone extracts from many seeds is dissolved by help 

 of the salts, which are there present. Such saline ex- 

 tracts are coagulated by heat and thus globulins have 

 figured, no doubt, as " vegetable albumin." Some glob- 

 ulins are only known in the amorphous or granular state ; 

 others occur as crystals. 



Gonglutin exists abundantly, according to Eitthausen, 

 in the seeds of peach, almond, lupin, radish, pea-nut, 

 hickory-nut, and hazel-nut, where it is jisually associated 

 with legumin. It may be separated by weak brine, in 

 which it is invariably soluble, while legumin, after sepa- 

 7 



