ABSORPTION OF WATER BY GLUTEN OF WHEATS. 125 
From the above results it seemed not unreasonable to suppose 
that this property of absorbing water depended rather upon the 
nature of the different glutens than upon their actual quantity. 
This supposition was moreover strengthened by the fact, noticed 
during the course of the experiments referred to, that the glutens 
obtained from the strong flours were as a rule rather tough and 
elastic, coherent, but not adhesive ; the weak flours, on the other 
hand yielding a gluten which was soft, tenacious and inelastic. 
The glutens of this class of flours when superficially dried, adhered 
to everything which came in contact with them, they could be 
drawn out and remained out of shape when the tension was 
relieved. So general is this, that although the terms soft, adhesive 
etc., used to express the nature of the glutens, are arbitrary terms 
and not referred to any exact scale, yet if we arrange the list 
already given in the order of their water-absorbing capacity we 
find this property follows closely the physical nature of the gluten 
Variety. Strength. Nature of Gluten. 
Improved Fife sar oe soft, non-adhesive. . 
White Essex... ... 58:9 med. hardness, non-adhesive. 
Amethyst... . 54:8 hard, non-adhesive. 
Triticum 52°9 soft, adhesive. 
Northern iawn . 49-0 soft, adhesive. 
Purple Straw... ing 475 soft, adhesive. 
Medeah 46-7 very soft, very adhesive. 
Australian Paieal 42:7 very soft, very adhesive. 
Vermont _.., ws 406 
oe 
very soft, very adhesive. 
Assuming then that the adhesive or sticky glutens are charac- 
teristic of the weak flours, and the non-adhesive and colierent 
glutens are characteristic of the strong, it remained to be seen if 
any connection could be established between these properties and ; 
the chemical] constitution of the glutens, in other words what 
Constituent of gluten determined the water-absorbing property 
of the flour. The following notes are an attempt to cevaenist 
this question, 
