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Serum protein analysis of 40 cases on pulmonary tuberculosis, by paper electro-phoresis and non-specific serum coloid reactions, such as cadmium, Gros, Takata and Weltmann reaction, were carried out.The results obtained were as follows : 1) Increase in percentage of α-α2-and γ-globulin to total protein and decrease of albumin were observed in chronic pulmonary tuberculosis. These changes, except of β-globulin, were proportional to the stage of the disease.2) Much increase of γ-globulin ware absened in far advanced pulmonary tuberculosis, but a few in mininal and mederately advanced.3) Increase of α-globulin occurred as the disease tends to exudative type.4) The changes of fraction of serum protein were compared with changes of non-specific serum coloid reaction (cadmium, Gros, Takata and Weltmann Reation); and the positivity rate of these reactions were related proportionaly to the percentage of serum albumin and γ-globulin mainly.

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Metals in silver brazing alloys are detected by paper chromatography on paper treated with di-(2-ethylhexyl) orthophosphoric acid. The developed paper is sprayed with dithizone solution to visualize silver, zinc, and cadmium spots; quercetin solution is used to detect copper and nickel.

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Bishop and Liebmann1 have described the quantitative separation of zinc from soldering alloys by chromatography on cellulose columns followed by polarographic estimation. We employ a similar method for the determination of small amounts of cadmium in copper–cadmium alloys, except that we use paper strips of normal thickness.

A technique has been developed for preconcentrating trace elements in high-purity tellurium metal. One gram of metal sample was placed in a 50-ml beaker, and dissolved in 20ml of 7 M nitric acid. To the solution was added 1ml of 0.1 M nitric acid containing 1μg each of cobalt, zinc or cadmium labelled with cobalt-60, zinc-65 or cadmium-115 m, respectively. The solution was evaporated to dryness, and the resulting solid (TeO2) was roughly triturated with a glass rod. Four milliliters of one of the solvents as described below were added to the beaker, which was put into water in a 35-1 cleaning tank, and ultrasonics (29 kHz, 150W) was applied to effect vigorous stirring. After 10 min, the contents of the beaker were filtered trough a glass fibre filter paper, which was then washed with 1 ml of the solvent, and the gamma activity of the combined filtrate and washings was measured with a well-type NaI (T1) scintillation counter. All the desired trace elements were extracted in more than 95% yields with water, 0.1 M nitric acid, 0.1 M hydrochloric acid, 1 M phosphoric acid and ethanol-12 M hydrochloric acid (99 : 1). Concentration factors of the trace elements with respect to tellurium matrix were (0.081) × 104. The time required for a separation was approximately 1.5 hrs.

A radio-release technique for the determination of traces of elements is described. A small amount of an insoluble compound is fixed on a small disc of filter paper or other suitable material. The exchangeable ions of this compound are labelled with a radioactive isotope and are then replaced with ions of the trace element to be determined in a solution. After the labelled ions are released from the carrier into the solution by shaking, the activity of the species released is measured and compared with one, or, a series of standards processed in the same way. In the first communication, a radio-release method for the determination of mercury, which is applicable to contents > 0.25 μg per ml, in the presence of several other elements including bismuth, lead, thallium, cadmium and copper, is described. The advantages and limitations of this method are discussed.

In addition to cobalt, metallic nickel, cadmium and other metals (e.g. zinc and copper) dissolve when incubated with horse serum at 37°. The dissolving property of copper in serum resembles that of cobalt, its solubility being increased greatly in the presence of oxygen, whereas the solubilities of cadmium, zinc and most preparations of nickel are the same aerobically and anaerobically. In all of these “metal-sera” the cations are bound, although in different proportions, both by proteins and by small diffusible molecules. Although Co2+ ions and cobalt-serum cause limited catalytic oxidation of fresh serum, most of the oxygen uptake by suspensions of metallic cobalt in serum, or by more simple model systems, is due to absorption of oxygen by the metal powder; the consequences of this are discussed. Metallic cobalt, cadmium and nickel dissolve readily when incubated with sterile homogenates of rat muscle (and other tissues), the dissolved cations being bound predominantly by small, diffusible molecules, rather than by the protein components. Binding by small molecules, in preference to proteins, also occurs when the metals dissolve in vivo. In both the in vivo and in vitro systems, the metallic ions are not bound by a specific cation carrier, but are distributed amongst a number of components. These components have greater affinities for the dissolved metals than serum proteins and seem likely to be the normal cation carriers in vivo. As in serum, solubility in muscle homogenates is not a specific property of the carcinogenic metals as other, non-carcinogenic metals also dissolve. The specificity of the former metals, therefore, is attributed to the subsequent effects of the dissolved cations after intracellular incorporation.

Erythrocyte membranes incorporated labeled phosphate from γ-adenosine triphosphate (AT32P) into phosphatidic acid and the polyphosphoinositides. Inositol-3H and palmitate-14C were also incorporated into the phospholipids but α-glycerophosphate-32P was not. The incorporation of γ-AT32P into phospholipids was increased when the erythrocyte ghosts were incubated in hypotonic media which lysed the cells. Lysis had little or no effect on the incorporation of inositol-3H and palmitate-14C into the phospholipids. If erythrocyte membranes were prepared in 1 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA), instead of 1 mM MgCl2, then the tonicity of the incubating medium did not influence the incorporation of γ-AT32P into the phospholipids. Erythrocyte ghosts, prepared by lysis in water, EDTA, or 1 mM calcium, lead, mercury, zinc, or cadmium, failed to reconstitute when placed in isotonic medium, inasmuch as they did not retain potassium against a chemical gradient. Ghosts prepared by lysis in 1 mM magnesium, barium, or strontium could be reconstituted. Ghosts which failed to reconstitute incorporated more labeled phosphate from γ-AT32P into the phospholipids than did intact or reconstituted ghosts. The larger incorporation of labeled phosphate by leaky ghosts was not due to a greater entrance of γ-AT32P into those cells. Primaquine phosphate and digitonin, at concentrations which are known to cause cells to form smaller vesicles or to lyse cells by removing cholesterol, did not increase the incorporation of labeled phosphate into the phospholipids. It is suggested that the increased metabolism of phospholipids may be involved in a membrane repair mechanism.

Four enzymes were separated from an extracellular preparation of Bacillus polymyxa by carboxymethylcellulose column chromatography. The pH optima were 8.3 to 8.5, 8.7 to 8.9, 9.2 to 9.4, and 9.5 to 9.6. All of the enzymes required calcium ion for maximum activity, whereas strontium ion was only partially effective in stimulating activity. Cobalt was the only other cation tested which was effective in two of the enzymes. The lyases seem to attack a calcium salt-bridged substrate. K(m) and V(m) data of the four enzymes on various oligomers are presented as well as paper chromatographic evidence of preferred sites of attack. All of the enzymes are endo-enzymes which, based upon their characteristics, were classed into two types.

We have continued, with more perfect apparatus, the enquiry recorded in a previous paper on the refractive indices of the vapours of elements which are not gaseous at ordinary temperatures. The instrument employed was the refractometer of Jamin, and the arrangement of the apparatus has been fully described in the paper just cited, so that it requires only a brief recapitulation here. Two similar exhausted tubes are placed in the paths of the rays of monochromatic light between the mirrors, and a known weight of the element is vaporised in one of them, of which the volume is known. The tubes are heated by means of a simple form of electric furnace, consisting of two coils of nickel wire embedded in asbestos.

Apart from what can be learned from the study of their density, little is known as to the constitution in the state of vapour of those elements which are solid or liquid at ordinary temperatures. In a paper read before the Society early last year we showed that interesting information on this subject can be obtained from the examination of the absorption spectra of sulphur. In the present paper we propose to give an account of the application of the method to other elements. Unfortunately, the number of elements which lend themselves to the purpose is small, being limited to those which do not attack silica at a high temperature and volatilise below 1300°-1400°C., the temperature at which silica begins to soften. Those most suitable for examination, besides the members of the sulphur group, are the mercury group, comprising mercury, zinc, and cadmium, in which the molecules are known to be mainly monatomic at all temperatures above their boiling points, and the phosphorus group, comprising phosphorus, arsenic, and antimony, in which the molecules are tetratomic. The apparatus and arrangements employed in the investigation were similar to those described in the paper on sulphur, except that the tubes were exhausted as completely as possible by the Sprengel pump.

It was required to determine the densities of small quantities of metallic elements to an accuracy of about one part in 10,000, and this paper is an account of some of the work undertaken to reach that end. In the course of the work, the densities of the following substances have been determined :─ (1) Carbon tetrachloride. (2) Ethylene dibromide. (3) Cadmium. (4) Lead and isotopic lead from uranium ore. Kahlbaum who has made the most exhaustive study of the density of metals, states that the determination of specific gravity of metals is a delicate matter which can only be effected with success on large quantities of substance, and one cannot attribute to the result the general character of a physical constant for the metal; the determined value belongs exclusively to the sample on which the determination is carried out. These statements are in our opinion too sweeping ; but in this paper it is only intended to describe an improvement in density measurements which renders possible determinations with accuracy on comparatively small samples, and to give a few illustration of the effectiveness of the method.