Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
October,  19 19.  > 
Current  Literature. 
693 
and  pastry,  on  account  of  the  distortion  of  the  starch  by  the  action 
of  the  heat  to  which  the  articles  have  been  exposed  in  cooking.  In 
such  cases  the  ligneous  elements  will  often  afford  valuable  evidence 
as  to  the  nature  of  the  starchy  material  originally  used.  The  follow- 
ing method  enables  these  elements  to  be  isolated  in  a  condition 
favorable  for  micro-examination.  About  0.5  Gm.  of  the  flour  or 
pastry  is  well  agitated  with  10  mils  of  10  per  cent,  nitric  acid,  and 
heated,  first  on  the  water-bath  for  five  minutes,  then  for  one  minute 
directly  in  the  flame.  The  heated  mixture  is  centrifugated  and  the 
liquid  decanted.  The  residue  is  boiled  with  5  mils  of  10  per  cent, 
caustic  soda  solution,  diluted  with  5  to  10  mils  of  water.  After 
again  centrifugating  the  deposit  is  suitable  for  examination.  If  the 
pastry  is  rich  in  fat  this  should  first  be  removed  by  means  of  suitable 
solvents,  and  the  fat-free  residue  treated  as  above. — T.  .Fellenberg 
[Milt.  get.  Lebensmitt  u.  Hygiene;  Annates  Chim.  Analyt.,  1919 
(2),  1,  163,  from  The  Pharm.  Jour,  and  Pharmacist,  May  31,  1919.) 
Antineuritic  Vitamin  in  Wheat  and  Corn  Kernel. — Ac- 
cording to  Voegtlin  and  Myers  the  germ  or  embryo  of  the  wheat 
and  corn  kernel  contains  all  of  the  antineuritic  vitamin  of  these 
cereals.  Wheat  flour  or  corn  meal  containing  the  germ  is,  therefore, 
more  nutritious  than  the  correspondingly  highly  milled  products. 
Consideration  of  the  distribution  of  the  antineuritic  substance  in 
the  wheat  and  corn  kernel  and  in  the  animal  body  suggest  that  this 
accessory  food  is  necessary  for  the  metabolism  of  the  growing  plant 
as  well  as  the  animal  body.  It  appears  that  cells  with  an  especially 
active  metabolism  are  also  rich  in  antineuritic  vitamin.  {Amer. 
Journal  of  Physiology,  from  Jour.  Amer.  Med.  Asso.,  June  21, 
1919.) 
Estimation  of  the  Nuclein  Content  of  Yeast. — C.  A.  Lub- 
sen  {Pharm.  Week-blad.,  1918,  55  (50),  1625-1628;  through  /. 
Chem.  Soc.,  1919,  115,  ii.,  124). — In  analyzing  foodstuffs  for 
nuclein  content,  pepsin-hydrochloric  acid  hydrolysis  is  employed  (in 
which  the  nucleo-proteins  are  insoluble)  to  remove  other  proteins. 
The  nucleins  are  then  determined  in  the  residue  by  estimating  the 
phosphoric  acid,  which  constitutes  4  to  7  per  cent,  of  the  nucleo- 
protein.  The  strength  of  the  hydrochloric  acid  is  of  importance, 
for,  if  it  be  only  0.1  per  cent.,  low  results  are  obtained,  but  accurate 
results  are  yielded  by  0.24  and  even  0.35  per  cent,  acid,  showing 
