A Micro-method for the Determination of the Hausmann Numbers of Proteins

Abstract

THE Hausmann numbers, or the determination of the partition of nitrogen, should be a rapid and convenient method for establishing definite criteria for a particular protein. This analysis, however, originally due to Hausmann [1899] and modified by Osborne and Harris [1903], has been subjected to criticism on several scores. In particular, several workers have found the estimation of the diamino-nitrogen, or basic fraction, to give unreliable results, which cannot always be duplicated. This fraction has been shown [Osborne, Leavenworth and Brautlecht, 1908] to correspond approximately with the amounts of the diamino-acids present in the protein, yet the results obtained by different workers vary so widely that it is evident that the composition of the precipitate is purely empirical and depends to some extent on the conditions.