200 
O'Brien . — The Proteids of Wheat. 
of what I have for the sake of convenience called myxon, what 
Ritthausen distinguished as gluten-fibrin and earlier writers 
as gluten-casein, which is ultimately insoluble, but which at 
first, as I have shown, possesses the solubility in alcohol in the 
cold which is typical of glutine. And it must be remembered 
that even the first precipitated part of myxon, not less than 
glutine, is soluble in cold alcohol, if of the right strength, 
i.e. 90 c / o , though in alcohol of 6c-7o°/ o heat is necessary for 
its solution — so that between it and the myxon later produced 
by standing or heating, the difference is only one of degree. 
Hence the term glutine comes ultimately to include all of 
myxon, and is really co-extensive with ‘glian’ in signification. 
The chemical properties of glutine, or of a freshly-prepared 
glian-solution, are those of a proteid. With Millon’s reagent, 
however, the precipitate or coagulum never becomes deep red, 
remaining somewhat salmon-coloured. The tint of the potash 
solution of the copper sulphate precipitate, being reddish 
rather than violet, indicates something of an albumose nature, 
as does also the greater solubility in hot than in cold alcohol. 
The solution also gives the reactions described by Osborne 41 , 
as characteristic of c Zein’ (see p. 203). 
d. Mucin has already been partly considered in treating of 
the solubility of gluten in water ; and the impossibility of its 
existing as such in gluten was inferred from its non-extract- 
ability by cold water. In composition it approaches myxon 
(Ritt.), and has in fact the typical average composition of pure 
gluten. Its solution gives the characteristic reactions of 
a primary albumose, and it resembles glutine except in its 
non-coagulability. 
These are the chief facts gathered from the study of gluten. 
Collected they seem to indicate : — 
(1) That the differently described alcohol-soluble derivates 
of gluten merge into one another ; 
(2) That the alcohol-soluble portion may be made to pass 
over into the insoluble stage ; 
(3) That a proteose is readily formed as a secondary pro- 
duct from gluten. 
