96 Dr. 8S. B.Schryver. Some Investigations Dealing [Aug. 12, 
through all parts of the liquid takes place, and they are prevented from 
accumulating in such dense masses as would be detrimental to their existence 
by interfering with their assimilatory or respiratory functions. It is possible 
also that some of the peculiar phenomena of plankton distribution may be 
explained in this way. 
/ 
Some Investigations Dealing with the State of Aggregation of 
Matter.—Parts I-III. 
By 8. B. Scuryver, D.Sc., Ph.D., Chemist to the Research Institute 
of the Cancer Hospital. 
(Communicated by Prof. E. H. Starling, M.D., F.R.S. Received August 12,— 
Read November 17, 1910.) 
Part I.—On the Action of Salts in Heterogeneous Systems, 
and on the Nature of the Globulins. 
A. GENERAL THEORY AND RESULTS. 
During the course of some investigations on the action of formaldehyde on 
the proteins, the observation was made that this aldehyde, when added to an 
aqueous solution of Witte’s peptone, produces a precipitate, and that the 
reaction could be either partially or completely inhibited by ‘the presence of 
neutral salts. This phenomenon was also noticed some years ago by 
T. Sollman,* who offered no satisfactory explanation of the facts. The 
more recent investigations of Sorensent have shown that when formaldehyde 
reacts with amino-acids a methyleneimino-derivative is produced, which is 
readily hydrolysed in the presence of water, yielding the original amino-acid 
and formaldehyde. The reaction is therefore a reversible one, and can be 
represented by the general equation 
(NH2)R-COOH + HCHO = (CH:N)R'COOH + H20. 
The amino-acid is only completely converted into the methyleneimino- 
derivative in the presence of a large excess of formaldehyde, and the 
~methyleneimino-acid thus produced is, in contrast to the amino-acid from 
which it was formed, so strongly acid that it can be titrated with caustic 
alkalis in the presence of phenolphthalein as indicator. These results are an 
* ‘American Journal of Physiology,’ 1902, vol. 7, p. 220. 
t ‘Biochem. Zeitsch.,’ 1907, vol. 7, p. 45. 
