Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/720

simple substance, and according to Ritthausen consists of glutencasein (Liebig’s vegetable fibrin), glutenfibrin, gliadin (Pflanzenleim), glutin or vegetable gelatin, and mucedz'n, which are all closely allied to one another in chemical com- position. It is the gliadin which confers upon gluten its capacity of cohering to form elastic masses, and of separat- ing readily from associated starch. In the so-called gluten of the flour of barley, rye, and maize, this body is absent (Kreusler and Ritthausen). The gluten yielded by wheat which has undergone fermentation or has begun to sprout is devoid of toughness and elasticity. These qualities can be restored to it by kneading with salt, lime-water, or alum. Koopmans found that a larger amount of raw gluten was digested in a relatively dilute than in a strong artificial gastric juice, the reverse holding good of albumin. From experiments on six pigs and three dogs, he came to the con- clusion that the digestive fluid in the stomachs of living animals, even of the same species, dissolves unlike quantities of albumin and gluten, so that if much albumin be digested the loss of weight of gluten present with it is but small, and vice versa (see Brit. and For. .lfed.—Clu'r. 13622., 1857, ii. pp. 318-25). Glut-en is employed in the manufacture of gluten bread and biscuits for the diabetic (see Diabetes, vol. vii. p. 148), and of chocolate, and also in the adulteration of tea and coffee. For making bread it must be used fresh, as otherwise it decomposes, and does not knead well. Granulated gluten is a kind of vermicelli, made in some starch manufactories by mixing fresh gluten with twice its weight of flour, and granulating by means of a cylinder and contained stirrer, each armed with spikes, and revolving in opposite directions. The process is_completed by the drying

and sifting of the granules.

See H. Ritthausen, “Ueber die Bestandtheile des \l'cizenklebers,” Erdnmnn’s Journ. f. praktischc Clzcmz'e, lxxxv., 186:2, pp. 193—229; also z'b., lxxxvi., 1862, pp. 257—265; and lxxxviii., 1863, pp. 141—147; T. Langer, Lchrbuch do?" Chcmic, pp. 361—37], Leipsie, 1878; and Pay-en, Industrial Clamnistry, ed. B. H. Paul, 1878.

 

Glutton, or Wolverene.

GLUTTON, or Wolverene (Gulo luscus), a carnivor-

ous mammal, belonging to the J[ ustelidce orweasel family, but differing from the typical forms of the genus .7l['ustela in the greater heaviness and clumsiness of its body, present- ing in this respect a striking resemblance to the bear. Its legs are short and stout, with large feet, the toes of which 'terminate in strong, sharp claws, considerably curved. Its mode of progression is semi-plantigrade. In size and form it is not unlike the European badger, measuring from 2 to -3 feet in length, exclusive of the thick bushy tail, which is about 8 inches long. Its head is broad, its eyes small, with defective vision, and its back arched. Its fur consists of an rundergrowth of short woolly hair, mixed with long straight hairs, to the abundance and length of which on the sides and tail the creature owes its shaggy appearance. The colour of its fur is blackish-brown, with a broad band of chestnut colour stretching from the shoulders along each side of the body, the two meeting near the root of the tail ,- while, unlike the majority of arctic animals, the fur of the glutton in winter-time grows darker in colour. Like other weasels it is provided with anal glands, which secrete a yellowish fluid possessing a highly foetid odour. The glutton is a boreal animal, inhabiting the northern regions of both hemispheres, but most abundant in the circumpolar area of the New World, where it occurs throughout the British provinces and Alaska, being specially numerous in the neighbourhood of the Mackenzie River, and extending southwards as far as New York and the Rocky Mountains. Many erroneous statements have been made regarding the glutton by early writers on natural history, from Olaus Magnus to Buffon, one of which has perpetuated itself in the animal’s common name,——the fact being that the wolverene is not more gluttonous than are the majority carnivorous animals. It feeds on grouse and the smaller rodents, and on foxes, which it digs from their burrows during the breeding season. Its want of activity, however, renders it dependent for most of its food on the dead car- cases of animals. These it frequently obtains by methods which have made it peculiarly obnoxious to the hunter and trapper. Should the hunter, after succeeding in killing his game, leave the carcase insufficiently protected for more than a single night, the glutton, whose fear of snares is sufficient to prevent him from touching it during the first night, will, if possible, get at and devour what he can of it on the second, hiding the remainder beneath the snow. He annoys the trapper by following up his lines of marten traps, which often extend to a length of 40 or 50 miles, each of which he enters from behind, extracting the bait, pulling up the traps, and devouring or concealing the entrapped martens. So persistent is the glutton in this practice, when once it discovers a line of traps, that its extermination along the trapper’s route is a necessary preliminary to the success- ful prosecution of his business. This is, however, no easy task, as the glutton is too cunning to be caught by the methods successfully employed on the other members of the weasel family. The trap generally used for this purpose is one made to resemble a cache, or hidden store of food, such as the Indians and hunters are in the habit of forming, the discovery and rifling of which is one of the glutton’s mOst congenial occupations,—the bait, instead of being paraded as in most traps, being in this case carefully concealed, to lull the knowing beast’s suspicions. One of the most pro— minent characteristics of the wolverene is its propensity, akin to that of certain members of the crow family, to steal and hide things, not merely food which it might afterwards need, or traps which it regards as personal enemies, but articles which cannot possibly have any interest for it except that of curiosity. An amusing instance of this is quoted by Cowes in his valuable work, recently published, on the Fur-bearing Animals qf North America, in which he says— “A hunter and his family, having left their lodge un- guarded during their absence, on their return found it completely gutted—the walls were there, but nothing else. Blankets, guns, kettles, axes, cans, knives, and all the other paraphernalia of a trapper’s tent had vanished, and the tracks left by the beast showed who had been the thief. The family set to work, and, by carefully following up all his paths, recovered, with some trifling exceptions, the whole of the lost l'n‘opei‘ty.” The cunning it displays in unravelling the oftentimes complicated snares set for it

forms at once the admiration and the despair of every of trapper, while its great strength and ferocity render it a