IN THE SEED WHICH ACCOMPANY GERMINATION. 
55 
extract, to start with, they must have gradually d im inished in each change. The most 
satisfactory experiment was one that was conducted on rather a large scale. A quantity 
of the solution of the mixed albumoses, prepared and purified as before described, 
was taken and acidified up to '2 per cent. HC1, and 25 c.c. of the glycerine ferment 
extract were added to it. The quantity in all was 300 c.c. This was digested for a 
week in a large beaker on a water-bath kept constantly at about 40° C. After the 
expiration of this time 100 c.c. of the fluid were taken from the beaker and boiled. 
On neutralising it, as before, a copious precipitate fell, which was filtered off. This 
contained the acid-albumin formed and part of the undigested albumoses. A further 
quantity of these came down on addition of ammonia, and these in turn were filtered 
off The clear liquid was treated then according to v. Gorup-Besanez’s directions 
to separate the crystalline amides, as has already been described in the case of the 
fibrin digestion. The leucin, &c., was precipitated by basic acetate of lead, the lead 
compound, after washing, decomposed by SH«, and the filtrate from this concentrated 
to very small bulk, when it deposited the crystals in abundance. From the pre¬ 
cautions taken, and the amount of them obtained, these could have had no other 
origin than the digestion of the albumoses. 
Besides these experiments made on the albumoses alone, some were carried out on 
whole extract, containing the globulin in addition. The course of the digestion, the 
disappearance of the original proteids, and the several products formed were the same 
in all cases. 
The action of the ferment then upon the proteids in the seed was marked by 
the successive formation of acid-albumin or parapeptone, peptone, and leucin and 
asparagin in different proportions. 
6. Comparison of these results with the changes ascertainable by examination of the 
seed and seedling during germination. 
following out these experiments, which were all performed apart from the seed 
itself, it seemed advisable to ascertain how far these successive steps could be recog¬ 
nised in the germinating seeds, and hence to deduce, if possible, the form in which the 
nitrogenous matter travels in the seedling. In his work already quoted Yines calls 
attention to the difference between the composition of the cell contents in the radicles 
and in the cotyledons of the germinating seeds, showing that when the germination 
took place in the dark, and the young plant was in consequence etiolated, there was 
much albumose and little asparagin in the cotyledons, while in the radicles asparagin 
alone was found. Y. Gorup-Besanez also has stated that in absence of light he 
found leucin and asparagin in the shoots of the Yetch. 
The composition of the resting seed has already been described. When germination 
had just begun, and the radicle was just protruding, the cotyledons were found to 
contain a considerable quantity of acid-albumin, but not much peptone. Seeds rather 
