396 



Profs. A. Gamgee and W. Jones. 



[Feb. 9, 



The value of this rotation is liable to revision, but its direction is 

 beyond question. 



Before formulating the general conclusions which, it appears to us, 

 may legitimately be deduced from the researches of which an account 

 has been given in this paper, we may sum up our work in the 

 following manner : — 



Summary. 



We have, in this paper, described six substances obtained from 

 various glands and have given methods by which several of these may 

 be isolated and obtained sufficiently free from colouring matters to 

 admit of exact polarimetric determinations. 



All six of these substances yield on hydrolysis, albuminous bodies, 

 phosphoric acid, and purin derivatives, and all contain iron in stable 

 combination ; they are, therefore, all nucleoproteids in the wide sense 

 of the term. 



The methods of preparation were such as to exclude all dextro- 

 rotatory substances which are not of a proteid nature, and all prepara- 

 tions were shown to be free from substances which reduce Fehling's 

 solution even on prolonged boiling. Nevertheless, all these substances 

 were found to be dextrorotatory, having specific rotations for light of 

 the wave-length of D which vary from 37°"58, that of the nucleohis- 

 ton of the thymus gland, to 97°*9 that of Hammarsten's nuclein obtained 

 from the pancreas and described by him as proteid. 



General Conclusions. 



1. The nucleoproteids (employing this term in its wider sense, as 

 including the compounds of the nucleinic acids with albuminous sub- 

 stances) which are contained in the pancreas, the thymus, and the 

 suprarenal gland are dextrorotatory albuminous compounds. 



2. When a nucleoproteid, by the splitting-off of albuminous mole- 

 cules, which in its original condition formed part of its more complex 

 molecule, becomes converted into a nucleoproteid of the "nuclein" 

 type, its specific rotation increases. 



3. It is legitimate to infer that not only the well characterised and 

 typical nucleoproteids which we have subjected to examination, but 

 all the nucleoproteids, including in this term the so-called nucleins, 

 form a class of dextrorotatory albuminous substances. 



Whilst the facts which have come under our notice appeared to us 

 so full of interest that it would not have been wise to defer their pub- 

 lication, we are perfectly alive to the importance of answering with 

 the least possible delay a number of most interesting questions sug 

 gested by them. We are already actively engaged in the investigation 

 of these questions and hope shortly to publish the results of our 



