Abstract
With the brains of foetuses on the fifth gravid month and on the eighth gravid month the author isolated and estimated the free amino-acids and related substances at various parts of these brains by means of the ion-exchange chromatography, and conducted the same investigations with the normal tissues surrounding the tumor of the frontal lobe in the brain of an 18-year-old patient with tubosclerosis.
1. The quantities of free amino-acids in the foetal brains differ significantly from those in the mature human brain.
2. In the foetal brain, with some variations according to sites, amino-acids such as taurine, phosphoethanolamine, glycine and alanine, generally tend to decrease with the advance in age, while glutaminic, aspartic and γ-amino-butyric acids tend to increase.
3. In either one of the foetal brains γ-amino-butyric acid is detected in a largest quantity in the hypothalamus.
4. Cystathionine which is often detected in a large quantity in the human brain after birth can hardly be recognized in the foetal brain.
