Abstract
Two months ago we received a copy of the January issue of the journal containing Wilson and Cramer's paper on “Protagon.” 1 Results recently published from this laboratory 2 and also from Halliburton's, 3 appeared to prove conclusively that protagon is always merely a mixture of substances and that it has no constant chemical qualities because of its invariable mechanical heterogeneity. Wilson and Cramer view our data from another standpoint, however. They have presented a few results which they believe completely invalidate our prior conclusions against the chemical individuality of protagon. We cannot agree with them in this opinion and are surprised to find their paper so weak in support of the far-reaching deductions they summarize on its concluding page.
Numerous inconsistencies in the paper by Wilson and Cramer must be frankly considered if the truth regarding protagon shall prevail. In this preliminary communication, however, we shall refer chiefly to the revival of the old and frequently abandoned notion 4 that treatment of protagon with warm alcohol effects its chemical decomposition which, they say (p. 105), “has not been suspected previously.”
Regarding the action of warm alcohol on protagon, Wilson and Cramer say: “The statement made in a former paper by Cramer, that protagon is not decomposed by warm ether or boiling alcohol, must therefore be corrected. In the case of boiling alcohol it is true only if the solvent is prevented from acting on protagon for some time.” Wilson and Crarner attribute the hypothetical decomposing effect of warm alcohol on protagon to an assumed cc hydrolyzing (!) action.” They present no facts, however, that justify this guess.
Wilson and Cramer have prepared protagon by a new method, in which the brain tissue is extracted first with cold 96 per cent.
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