The splitting of haemoglobin by acids.
IT is well known that haemoglobin is split by acids into its protein constituent, globin, and the prosthetic group haem. That these two dissociation products can be recombined has long been known, and the resynthesis has been extensively studied. The purpose of the present work was to investigate the products of fission and reconstitution with the aid of the ultracentrifuge. Globin has been previously examined in the ultracentrifuge [Svedberg, 1930] and found to be heterogeneous as regards molecular weight. Svedberg suggested that this heterogeneity was caused by severe chemical conditions during preparation of the globin, and, further, that milder methods would probably yield a monodisperse product. Some of the results of the present investigation have already been quoted by Svedberg [1937; 1938].