The role of the phospholipin in visual purple solutions

Abstract

FOR sixty years since its discovery by Boll [1876] and Kuhne visual purple has been identified exclusively through the absorption spectrum and the photosensitivity of its solutions. Recently more properties of this chromo- protein have been studied, namely its diffusion coefficient [Hecht et al. 1937], molecular weight [Hecht & Pickels, 1938], chromophore carrier weight All these determinations, except that of the cataphoretic mobility, depend, however, ultimately on a knowledge of light absorption. Up to the present the spectrum and the photo- sensitivity have been used as the only purity criteria of visual purple.