1 877.] 
at Home and Abroad . 
95 
the body is a tetrabasic acid. Indeed he states that he has 
calculated these figures and formula from a barium salt, for 
which he only gives the percentage of barium. He further 
says that it may combine with sodium and “ protamin ” in 
various different ways, giving rise to many definite and new 
striking compounds. Accompanying the “nuclein” from 
Spermatozoa was a base (the above protamin) whose hydro- 
chlorate was difficultly soluble in alcohol. From the analysis 
of some platinum salts he has calculated a formula for the 
free body (protamin) of C 9 H 20 N 5 0 2 , but in the specific 
analyses from which he has made these calculations he has 
not given the percentages of platinum and chlorine found. 
Taking, however, one of his analyses as follows— 
C = 23*160 
H = 4'355 
N = 15*000 
O = 6*252 
Pt = 24*643 
Cl — 26*590, 
and calculating out these figures in the ordinary way (Pt = x), 
the following empirical formula results 
C I5 H 33 N 8 0 3 ,2HCl,PtCl 4 . 
In this computation we have calculated his chlorine on the 
assumption that it is associated with the platinum in the 
relation 6 : x ; for in no analysis does he give determinations 
of all elements present in the molecule of his preparation. 
That his formula for protamin is therefore incorredf, on the 
surface of things, is proved by a mathematical consideration 
of the data furnished by the author himself. Piccard, in 
the same journal, shows that what Meischer really had in his 
hands was a mixture of sarkine and guanine, though this 
critic admits that beyond these substances there certainly 
was a new base. We would suggest for that “ new” base 
the old name, which it has always borne, of lecithin or of 
neurine. We shall dismiss this subject with the remark 
that, as regards these “ nuclein ” and “ protamin ” preci- 
pitates, they may not unfitly be classified, together with 
certain human beings, under one comprehensive heading— 
the Great Unwashed. 
More seriously we feel that, as a result to Science, what- 
ever might have been valuable in these researches is, for the 
time being, absolutely valueless. 
Another example of similar work is presented in a paper 
