18 BULLETIN 158^ U, S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICUITUEE. 
arrived at from the results obtained with the Van Slyke method. 
The Millon reaction and the Hopkins-Cole reaction were both nega- 
tive; showing the absence from this proteinlike compound of the 
tyrosine and the tryptophane radicles. 
A very large number of compounds intermediary between the pro- 
tein and its primary hydrol3"sis products may occur, depending on a 
great variety of conditions so that the actual identification of the com- 
pound under discussion would be a difficult matter. However, the 
nature of this compound may be approximately determined by the 
results obtained in the study of the two extracts by the Van Slyke 
method. These results have been already discussed and they indi- 
cate the presence in the base goods of a compound of a proteose na- 
ture, which because it gives a biuret test, must be composed of at 
least tln-ee amino acids. The results indicate still further that the 
compound is composed of acid amide radicals', diamino acids, particu- 
larly lysine, and monoamine acids, those containing amino nitrogen 
and especially those containing non-amino nitrogen. Since the fig- 
ures obtained by the nitrogen partition method are subject to a cer- 
tain amount of error when applied to such a mixture the figures can 
only be taken as approximate for the various forms of nitrogen which 
make up this compound. 
The figures given for arginine in the table are probably only influ- 
enced by any cystine present. Attempts to isolate cystine from the 
base goods failed, although it seems unlikely that this compound can 
be absent. The figures for histidine and lysine are undoubtedly too 
high, since they include all of the other nitrogenous compounds pre- 
cipitated by phosphotungstic acid, so that the absolute amount of 
these compounds in base goods can not be correctly determined by 
this method. The figure given for the amount of amino nitrogen 
present as mo no amino acids may be a little high, while the non- 
amino nitrogen figure is open to considerable error. 
In Table VI are given the primary hydrolysis products of a number 
of proteins which may be present in the base goods. These results 
were obtained by the esterification method and show how the differ- 
ent proteins vary ui the nature and amount of the units composing 
them. Many monoamuio acids, besides leuchie and tyrosiae, occur 
in these proteins, and there must consequently be present in the base 
goods amino acids other than the two isolated. This is apparent 
from the composition of the various proteins shown in the table. 
Owing to the large amount of amide nitrogen present in the fertilizer, 
which was split off by the acidulation of the original proteias of the 
trade wastes, it may be concluded that considerable quantities of 
aspartic or glutamic acids are present in this sample of base goods. 
The conclusions which are to be drawn from the results obtained 
by the examination of this fertilizer by means of the analytical and 
