Albumen

“ So mysterious are the properties of the molecules of albumen and fat, when once they have been thrown into the whirl of the living organism, that we must strive to deviate as little as possible from the exact forms given to us in nature, if only because we do not know what remote effects might result from the deviations. If nature provides the albumen of milk and a living fluid, we cannot expect the same results from any other albumen, or from long dead organic matter, as condensed milk. ”

“ The granular, colourless, sac-shaped albumen encloses a horny endosperm, in which the embryo is inserted the projecting radicle being directed towards the hilum. The cells of the albumen have the form of elongated polyhedra, almost entirely filled with very small starch granules. Besides them, there occur in most of the cells, somewhat larger masses of albuminoid matter having a rhombohedric form, distinctly observable when thin slices of the seed are examined under almond oil in polarized light. ”

“ In chemistry, the name of a class of albuminoids that are soluble in water, as serum and egg albumen. Egg albumen differs from serum by giving a precipitate when agitated with ether; it is scarcely soluble in strong nitric acid ”

“ The albumen is allowed two or three days to settle, when it is filtered through a sponge placed in a funnel, or through two or three thicknesses of fine muslin, and transferred to a flat dish. The paper is cut of convenient size and allowed to float on the solution for about a minute, when it is taken off and dried in a warm room. For dead prints, on which colouring is to take place, plain salted paper is useful. It can be made of the following proportions—90 arts of ammonium chloride, 100 parts of sodium citrate, 10 parts of gelatin, 5000 parts of distilled water. ”

“ Let the sheet so placed remain four minutes: then take it by the turned up corner, and rip it from the albumen quickly, so as to carry up a quantity of the albumen with it. Let it drain for a minute or two, moving it so as not to allow the albumen to run in streaks; pin it to a piece of tape; and, when dry, pass a very hot iron over the back. This ends the albumenising process.
To make the Paper sensitive.—Place the albumenised side downwards, for four minutes, on the surface of a solution of nitrate of silver, of the strength of ninety grains to the ounce of distilled water ”

“ Advantage is often taken, in cooking, of the fact that albumen hardens on exposure to certain degrees of heat, to form protecting layers over pieces of broiling steak, roast meats, etc. If a piece of meat is placed in cold water to cook, it is evident, since albumen is soluble in cold water, that some of it will be wasted. If the same piece is plunged into boiling water the albumen in its outer layers will be immediately hardened, and form a sheath over the whole which will keep in the juices and the very important flavors. ”

“ If we desire to test any liquid to ascertain whether it contains any proteolytic—i.e., albumen-decomposing—ferments, we place it in a dialysing tube together with albumen, and note whether peptones appear in the liquid surrounding the dialysing tube. If none are present, we may be sure that the tested liquid contains none of the active ferments capable of decomposing albumen. Should we detect the presence of peptones, we may be certain that some decomposition of the albumen has taken place. In our special case the fluid to be tested is blood serum. ”

“ Rouelle and Fourcroy who have analyzed the water of dropsies have also found albumen predominant in it. Observe upon this subject that all the white flakes swimming in this water, that the false membranes that form in it and the white fluids which give it the appearance of milk, appear to be only albumen which is found in different degrees of consistence. It might be said that the heat of inflammation has produced the same phenomenon during life, that common caloric does upon the white of an egg, the water of dropsies, &c. ”

“ The former encloses in its copious, soft albumen a pair of large, plain, leafy, heart-shaped cotyledons with a stout radicle. The taste of the kernel is simply oily.
Microscopic Structure—The testa is chiefly formed of cylindrical thick-walled cells. The albumen exhibits large angular cells containing fatty oil, masses of albuminous matter and tufted crystals of calcium oxalate. Starch is not present.
Chemical Composition—The kernels afforded us by means of ether 51·5 per cent. of fatty oil, which is almost colourless or somewhat brownish if the seeds are not fresh. ”

“ In albumenizing paper, I have not found it desirable to remove the paper very slowly from the solution. Whenever I have done so, it has invariably dried with waves and streaks, which quite spoiled the sheet. A steady motion, neither too slow nor too quick, I have found succeed perfectly, so that I now never spoil a sheet. I have used the solution with less albumen than recommended by Dr. Diamond. My formula has been.—
Albumen 8 oz. ”

“ Microscopic Structure—The albumen which constitutes the main portion of the grain is composed of large thin-walled parenchyme, the cells of which on transverse section are seen to radiate from the furrow, and to be lengthened in that direction rather than longitudinally. In the vicinity of the furrow alone the tissue of the albumen is narrower. Its predominating large cells show a polygonal or oval outline, whilst the outer layer is built up of two, three or four rows of thick-walled, coherent, nearly cubic gluten-cells. This layer, about 70 mkm. ”

“ Albumen is without color, taste, or smell, and it coagulates by heat, acids, and alcohol.
Observation. The white of an egg is composed of albumen, which can be coagulated or hardened by alcohol. As albumen enters so largely into the composition of the brain, is not the impaired intellect and moral degradation of the inebriate attributable to the effect of alcohol in hardening the albumen of this organ?
59. Fibrin exists abundantly in the blood, chyle, and lymph. It constitutes the basis of the muscles. Fibrin is of a whitish color, inodorous, and insoluble in cold water. ”

“ This is in accordance with what we find in the egg, where the albumen supplies a kind of purer aliment adapted to the nutrition of the embryo in its earlier stages, and the yelk affords the material for the growth of the chick and pullet. The thinner albumen, moreover, as we have seen, is used in fashioning the first and more noble parts; the thicker albumen and the yelk, again, are employed in nourishing and making these to grow, and further in forming the less important parts of the body. ”

“ Albumen is always dissolved in the cold, a process which takes several days when large quantities are required. The usual strength of the solution is 4 ℔ per gallon of water for blood albumen, and 6 ℔ per gallon for egg albumen. ”

“ Nothing that lives and grows is without nitrogen, and so we find it in large or small amounts in all plants as well as all animals. Our supplies of albuminoids, or flesh-formers, are obtained from lean meat, fish, poultry, game, as milk curd or cheese, eggs, gluten in flour, fibrine in oats, and in beans, peas and lentils. Albumen is found in many other foods besides eggs. The blood of many animals contains it, and we have presently to speak of albumen in meat. In most vegetable juices and in many seeds and nuts we find it also. ”

“ In the albumen process the sensitive film is composed of egg albumen, bichromate of ammonium or potassium, and water, which is spread upon a zinc plate. After exposure to light under the negative, the whole surface is inked over with transfer ink, and then immersed in cold water and gently rubbed. The ink will wash away from those portions which have been protected from light by the opaque portions of the negative, and will adhere to those affected by light. Thus on a bed of zinc we have an ink image on a substratum of albumen, the exact copy of the original. ”

“ As a basis, then, I use for the necessary trituration, the finest radio-active milk sugar produced, flavored with pure vanilla extract. The high percentage of albumen contained in it is due to the use of the most highly perfected hygienic product of albumen known to chemistry. It is chemically pure and manufactured from eggs, milk and vegetables and, therefore, absolutely free from microscopical germs, harmful to the human system. ”

“ This loss indicates the desirability of plunging the fish or flesh at once into water hot enough to immediately coagulate the superficial albumen, and thereby plug the pores through which the inner albuminous juice otherwise exudes.
But this is not all. There are other juices besides the albumen, and these are the most important of the flavoring constituents, and, with the other constituents of animal food, have great nutritive value; so much so, that animal food is quite tasteless and almost worthless without them. ”

“ Vegetable albumen being of a very unstable nature, is partly again decomposed into amides and sugar, and, while the latter is used in accomplishing the structure of the plant by changing into cellulose, the amide is again transformed into albuminoid, and by decomposition reduced to amides. Thus, by continually assimilating carbonic acid and water, combining with them to form albuminoids, and giving them off again as sugar, the amides act a prominent part in the development of plants. ”

“ We now turn to study the cases of a compensation of nourishments serving for the real building up of the organism. Albumen, we know, is absolutely indispensable for animals, even for adults, though nothing is known about the purpose it serves in the latter; its place can be taken of course by those less complicated compounds which result from its first decomposition, effected by pepsin and trypsin, but nothing else will do. ”

“ We are still far from knowing the constitution of the highest organic substances, the albuminous bodies; but there is no reason why we should not, if only after centuries, arrive at that knowledge and, armed with it, produce artificial albumen. But if we arrive at that, we shall at the same time have produced organic life, for life, from its lowest to its highest forms, is but the normal mode of existence of albuminous bodies. ”

“ They all contain nitrogen. Explosives which are a chemical means of storing tremendous amounts of energy, are mostly of some nitrogenous compound. Albumen is an organic compound of great importance in life, which, besides being the characteristic ingredient in the white of an egg, abounds in the serum of the blood and forms an important part of the muscles and brain. Albuminoids play the most vital rôle in plant life and are an extensive class of organic bodies found in plants and animals, as they are found to form the chief constituents of blood, nerves. ”

“ Water, which gives an acid or alkaline reaction, leads inevitably to erroneous results. Ninhydrin reacts not only with albumen and albuminous decomposites, but under certain conditions with other compounds as well, for instance, sugar. [3] No trouble can be caused by these, if distilled water be used. The organ cannot give off any non-albuminous substances, which will affect the reaction of the fluid, if it is boiled in the manner prescribed. There could not possibly be any carbohydrates left, and we have the control test with serum to fall back on, in any case. ”

“ Certainly, further investigations showed that the same diet which was the most favorable to the production of the condition which I have named (the disappearance of the sugar from the urine and the simultaneous increase of the reducing substances) , also effected the best albuminous increment in the body. Key’s statements teach us that male individuals put on more albumen than females, and that this is especially the case during the period of growth. ”

“ The paper should be carefully chosen, by holding up every sheet to the light, and only those sheets which are homogeneous in appearance and free from spots should be kept for use.
The albumen should be obtained from new-laid hens' eggs; twenty-four is a convenient number to use at a time: these will yield twenty-four ounces of albumen, to which should be added six ounces of distilled writer (making thirty ounces in all) and four per cent. of chloride of ammonium, viz. one ounce and a quarter. ”

“ The author of the “Vestiges” is rather less explicit on the subject: he simply refers to the fact, that the “basis of all vegetable and animal substances consists of nucleated cells,—that is, of cells having granules within them;” and states that globules of a resembling character “can be produced in albumen by electricity;” and that though albumen itself has not yet been produced by artificial means,—the only step in the process of creation which is wanting,—it is yet known to be a chemical composition, the mode of whose production may “be any day discovered in the laboratory.” ”

“ But when plasma of normal animals was mixed with albuminous bodies and placed in a dialysation tube, no substances giving the biuret reactions could be traced in the outer fluid, even after standing for many days. Finally, it has been proved quite recently that, by mixing the plasma or serum of specially treated animals with albumen, the nitrogenous contents of the outer fluid increase to a considerably greater extent than when the plasma of normal animals and albumen are mixed together. ”