1878.] Chemical Composition of Aleurone Grains. 



219 



found to hold ranch globulin in solution. The residue on the filter 

 was then placed in a beaker with 500 cub. centims. of the 0*1 per cent. 

 NaHO solution, and allowed to stand for twenty-four hours. At the 

 end of that time the alkaline fluid was poured off, and the residue 

 placed on a filter and well washed with distilled water. On treating 

 it with 10 per cent. NaCl solution it was impossible to extract from it 

 more than the merest traces of globulin. It appears, therefore, that 

 the globulin had become altered by the action of the alkaline fluid, 

 that it had in fact become dissolved in it in the form of alkali-albumin. 

 This change probably occurs in the extraction of conglutin by 

 Ritthau sen's method. 



Moreover, I found that conglutin prepared according to Ritt- 

 hausen's methods gives reactions which are characteristic of the 

 substances formed when various animal proteids are treated with 

 dilute acid or alkaline solutions (acid-albumin, alkali- albumin), and it 

 does not differ very widely from these substances in elementary com- 

 position. These facts support the view that conglutin is merely a pro- 

 duct of the alteration of the true reserve-proteids. Weyl had already 

 shown that no proteids, except such as are soluble in 10 per cent. 

 NaCl solution, can be extracted from the seeds by treating them with 

 1 per cent. ISra 2 C0 3 solution. This proves that conglutin does not pre- 

 exist in the seed. 



I therefore agree with Weyl in concluding that the proteids stored 

 up in the seeds of the blue lupin consist of globulins (vegetable 

 vitellin and vegetable myosin). 



Subsequent observations, however, assured me that this is not the 

 only form in which the reserve-proteids are present. I found that the 

 10 per cent. NaCl extract of the seeds contained, in addition to the 

 globulins, a proteid in solution, which was not precipitated by boiling, 

 or by saturation with rock-salt, or by dilution with distilled water. This 

 substance may be isolated by extracting the ground seeds with distilled 

 water ; boiling the extract several times to remove all traces of globulin ; 

 evaporating to small bulk over a water-bath, and allowing the fluid to 

 filter into absolute alcohol. As it drops into the alcohol a dense pre- 

 cipitate is formed. The substance which is thus precipitated is readily 

 soluble in distilled water even after being exposed for months to the 

 action of alcohol. Its solution in distilled water does not become 

 turbid on boiling ; it gives a precipitate on the addition of a drop of 

 HNO3, which is soluble in excess of acid ; it gives the xanthoproteic 

 and Millon's reactions ; it gives an immediate precipitate with acetic 

 acid and potassic ferrocyanide ; and it gives a bright pink colour when 

 treated with excess of strong ISTaHO solution on the addition of a drop 

 of dilute CuS0 4 solution. The substance does not dialyse. These 

 properties and reactions indicate that the substance is allied to the 

 peptones. It most nearly resembles the a peptone of Meisoner, or, 



