IMMUNOCHEMICAL STUDIES OF THE PLANT PROTEINS 425 
included which gave a positive reaction with one or more of the wheat 
proteins. 
For the sake of comparison with the other cereals, corn, oat, rice, 
barley and rye proteins were tested, using for this purpose the pre- 
parations made by the author (Wodehouse, '16).^ 
The writer is well aware of the incompleteness of the records 
shown in the following table but this is due to the fact that the in- 
vestigation was carried out upon patients the number of which reacting 
to wheat proteins was limited. Then with patients it is not possible 
to repeat tests with the frequency and thoroughness that is possible 
when using animals for anaphylactic tests. 
When this work was begun the writer was expectant of finding that 
some one of the proteins of wheat was entirely responsible for its ana- 
phylactogenic properties or else that they all behaved in the same 
fashion and it was with the idea of isolating the "active principle" 
that the work was undertaken. That no such simple state of affairs 
exists can be seen from a glance at the table. On the contrary this 
work shows that, though all of the proteins are capable of calling forth 
anaphylactic symptoms, their method of action is so complex that with 
our present state of knowledge it baffles explanation. Several in- 
teresting obtentions to which attention is drawn in the following 
paragraphs should, however, be noticed. 
In many cases where the whole wheat preparation gives a doubtful 
reaction or even in some where it gives a negative, some one or more 
of the individual proteins give a quite definite reaction and always 
one or more of the individual proteins are as active or, as is usually the 
case, more so than the whole wheat preparations. 
Of the total number of patients with which any part of wheat gave a 
reaction 
2 These preparations were made by soaking the uncooked flour or meal of the 
cereals in water until a solution rich in protein was obtained. From this the protein 
material was precipitated by alcohol and the precipitate dried in alcohol and ether. 
Whole wheat protein 
Bread protein 
Percent 
reacted with 60 
Natural proteose . 
Artificial proteose 
Globulin 
Gliadin . 
Glutenin 
Leucosin 
45 
57 
31 
38 
61 
72 
36 
