i 9 7 
O' Brien . — The Proteids of Wheat. 
increases from 15% to 7o°/ o , and by continuing the process 
further the amount may be increased to as much as 95%. 
There is thus no hard and fast line between zymom and the 
alcohol-soluble constituents of gluten. In this connexion we 
may consider the fact mentioned by many writers on glu- 
ten 29 , 32 , that by allowing the paste to stand for some time 
before washing, considerably more gluten may be obtained 
than by at once proceeding to wash it; this may be due to 
the process of hydration having meanwhile gone on and 
diminished the danger of loss in washing. 
Thus the identification of the more insoluble part of gluten 
(zymom) with any simple proteid seems impossible ; it being, 
as is obvious from the above results, a secondary product. 
In the first place it is derived from the mother-proteid as it 
occurs in flour by the addition of water; later, and more 
slowly, in the process of washing, by further hydration of 
this proteid (or its first-formed derivate). Its identification, 
as 4 gluten-casein,’ with the £ caseins ’ of leguminous seeds 
(legumin) and almonds (conglutin) is extremely doubtful. 
Although, as prepared from alkaline solution, these caseins 
are insoluble in salt-solutions, yet in the native state they are 
extremely soluble, conglutin dissolving readily even in water : 
admittedly, however, zymom is the most insoluble part of 
gluten, itself a rather insoluble form of proteid ! 
b. Myxon is described by Ritthausen as hard to estimate: 
he finds 2-3°/ 0 , but suggests that the amount is probably 
larger; von Bibra finds 8-8°/ o . As the amount present 
seemed to me to vary with every change in temperature, 
and in the strength of the alcohol, I have not tried to estimate 
it. It is described by Ritthausen, under the name of 4 gluten- 
fibrin,’ as hard, brittle, and transparent, as soluble in 90°/ o 
alcohol in the cold, and as losing part of this solubility on 
drying in the air at ordinary temperatures (a change which 
might equally well be described as a partial transformation 
into zymom). It is characterised as being the only constituent 
of glian which forms a skin on the surface on the cooling of 
an alcoholic solution, and is said to diminish the softness and 
