Am.  Jour.  Pharm.\ 
November,  1903.  j 
Reactions  of  Albumin. 
The  fact  has  been  apparently  overlooked  in  the  criticism  that 
there  is  used  in  this  new  method  of  determining  blood  alkalinity, 
not  a  direct  chemical  indicator,  but  a  physical  indicator — the  spec- 
troscope— an  indicator  of  such  delicacy  that  it  can  show  the  pres- 
ence of  sodium  in  the  sun  95,000,000  miles  from  this  planet.  Like 
chemical  indicators,  however,  a  certain  amount  of  the  acid  is  used 
up  to  decompose  the  hemoglobin,  and  to  this  extent  the  results 
given  by  the  Dare  method  register  too  high. 
So  far  as  the  diffusible  alkalies  of  the  blood  are  concerned,  there 
is  little  doubt  that  these  are  immediately  neutralized  on  the  addition 
of  acids  to  blood.  That  the  difficultly-diffusible  alkalies  of  the 
red  blood  corpuscles  are  neutralized,  is  shown  by  the  elimination  of 
the  hemoglobin  bands  in  the  spectroscopic  field.  Whether  or  not 
the  difficultly-diffusible  alkalies  of  the  blood-proteids  are  neutralized 
prior  to  any  action  they  may  exert  on  these  albuminous  bodies,  can 
be  answered  only  when  we  understand  clearly  the  nature  of  the 
chemical  action  of  acids  and  alkalies  on  albumins. 
Recent  researches  have  shown  that  the  albumins  of  the  blood  have 
no  real  acid  combining  power  or  alkali-combining  power,  as  has  been 
thought.  In  other  words,  there  are  no  acid-albuminates  or  alkali- 
albuminates  in  a  true  chemical  sense,  such  as  one  would  liken  to 
the  union  of  an  acid  with  an  alkali.  Albumins  may  loosely  com- 
bine with  acids  or  alkalies  in  weak  solutions  without  change  of 
properties,  but  such  combinations  are  apparently  more  physical 
than  chemical,  more  intermolecular  than  interatomic.  By  the  action 
of  strong  alkali  solutions,  the  albumins  are  converted  (with  the 
elimination  of  nitrogen  as  ammonia  and  sulphur  as  alkali  sulphide) 
into  modifications  called  alkali  albuminates,  but  these  are  clearly  the 
products  of  disrupted  molecules  and  radically  different  from  the 
original  molecules.  In  somewhat  similar  manner  modifications  may 
be  obtained  with  albumins  and  acids  (but  without  the  elimination  of 
nitrogen  or  sulphur),  and  these  are  the  so-called  acid  albuminates, 
together  with  albumoses  and  sometimes  peptones,  the  nature  of 
the  products  varying  with  the  temperature  and  strength  of  acid 
used. 
Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  alkali  and  acid  albuminates  have 
certain  reactions  in  common,  Hammarsten  {Physiological  Chemis- 
try, 1900,  32)  believes  that  "  The  acid  and  alkali  albuminates  are 
essentially  different,  for  by  dissolving  an  alkali  albuminate  in  some 
