A Study of " Protagon." 



97 



58 (314) 



A study of " protagon " prepared by the Wilson- Cramer 



method. 



By L. J. COHEN and WILLIAM J. GIES. 



[From the Laboratory of Biological Chemistry of Columbia Univer- 

 sity, at the College of Physicians and Surgeons.] 



Two months ago we received a copy of the January issue of 

 the journal containing Wilson and Cramer's paper on " Protagon." 1 

 Results recently published from this laboratory 2 and also from 

 Halliburton's, 3 appeared to prove conclusively that protagon is 

 always merely a mixture of substances and that it has no constant 

 chemical qualities because of its invariable mechanical heteroge- 

 neity. Wilson and Cramer view our data from another standpoint, 

 however. They have presented a few results which they believe 

 completely invalidate our prior conclusions against the chemical 

 individuality of protagon. We cannot agree with them in this 

 opinion and are surprised to find their paper so weak in support 

 of the far-reaching deductions they summarize on its concluding 

 page. 



Numerous inconsistencies in the paper by Wilson and Cramer 

 must be frankly considered if the truth regarding protagon shall 

 prevail. In this preliminary communication, however, we shall 

 refer chiefly to the revival of the old and frequently abandoned 

 notion 4 that treatment of protagon with warm alcohol effects its 

 chemical decomposition which, they say (p. 105), " has not been 

 suspected previously." 



Regarding the action of warm alcohol on protagon, Wilson 

 and Cramer say : " The statement made in a former paper by 

 Cramer, that protagon is not decomposed by warm ether or 

 boiling alcohol, must therefore be corrected. In the case of boiling 

 alcohol it is true only if the solvent is prevented from acting on 



1 Wilson and Cramer: Journal of Experimental Physiology, 1908, i, p. 97. 



2 Lesem and Gies : American Journal of Physiology, 1 902, viii, p. 183; Gies and 

 collaborators: Biochemical Researches, 1903, i, p. 263 (reprint no. 11) ; Posner and 

 Gies: Journal of Biological Chemistry, 1905, i, p. 59; Gies: The same, 1906, ii, 

 p. 350; Steel and Gies : American Journal of Physiology , 1907, xx, p. 378. 



3 Rosenheim and Tebb : Journal of Physiology, 1907, xxxvi, p. I. 



4 Gies : Journal of Biological Chemistry, 1907, iii, p. 350. 



