452 
DE. W. H. EANSOM ON THE OYUM OF OSSEOUS FISHES. 
Chlorides of sodium and potassium dissolve it, and the solution is reprecipitated by 
water ; it then may be again dissolved by acetic acid, phosphoric acid, hydrochloric acid, 
and nitric acid, the acid solutions not being coagulated by boiling unless nitric acid be 
added while hot, and not being precipitated by water in excess. This solubility of the 
second precipitate by water, in nitric acid, is the more remarkable, as the first solution 
of the albumen b in chloride of potassium is precipitated by nitric acid. 
Ammonia dissolves it, the solution is not precipitated by water in excess, and only very 
imperfectly coagulated by prolonged boiling, after which acetic acid causes a copious 
precipitate. 
Weak solutions of potash and its carbonate do not dissolve it ; they partially coagulate 
a clear egg. 
The common phosphate of soda dissolves it, and if precipitated again by excess of 
water, and redissolved by phosphoric acid, the acid solution may be boiled without 
coagulating, unless ammonia be added while hot, or may be diluted freely with water, 
without clouding. If acetic acid be used instead of phosphoric, the solution may be 
boiled without coagulation, unless potash be added. 
The phosphate of ammonia acts like the above ; the precipitate from it by water may 
be dissolved in phosphoric acid, and the solution, which is faintly clouded by prussiate of 
potash, and more so by nitric acid, is not at all so by chloride of mercury or by boiling, 
unless ammonia in excess be added hot. 
Weak acetic acid does not dissolve it; stronger does, and the solution is not precipi- 
tated by water used freely ; the acid solution clouds a little on boiling. 
Weak phosphoric acid dissolves it; the solution is not reprecipitated by water or by 
boiling. 
A concentrated, acid-reacting, aqueous, solution of the salts and watery extractive of 
the egg dissolves it, the solution being precipitable by water in excess. 
While a strong solution of sugar , in which the eggs float, causes the albumen b to 
precipitate if an egg he broken in it, a weaker solution of glycerine does not. 
These somewhat complicated reactions do not precisely accord with any modification 
of albumen with which I am familiar. Perhaps it has the closest affinity with myosin, 
recently discovered by Kuhne * in the juice of muscle. Besides its precipitation by water 
and easy solubility in most alkaline salts, the most characteristic reactions are, that under 
certain conditions its acid solutions do not coagulate on boiling, even when the acid is 
the nitric, and that its solution in some neutral salts is not precipitable by alcohol. 
The ichthuline of Valenciennes and Fkemy f may be the same substance, but I cannot 
feel sure. 
The natural salts of the yelk probably hold this albumen in solution, at least it has 
been shown that they can do so; whether the acid of the yelk contributes thereto I 
could not make out. 
* Untersuchungen iiber das Protoplasma und die Contractilitat, 1864. 
f “ Becherches sur la Composition des ceufs dans la serie des Animaux,” Journal de Pharmacie et de Chimie, 
t. xxv. and t. xxvi. 
