GLUTEN, a tough, tenacious, ductile, somewhat elastic, nearly tasteless and greyish-yellow albuminous substance, obtained from the flour of wheat by washing in water, in which it is insoluble. Gluten, when dried, loses about two-thirds of its weight, becoming brittle and semi-transparent; when strongly heated it crackles and swells, and burns like feather or horn. It is soluble in strong acetic acid, and in caustic alkalis, which latter may be used for the purification of starch in which it is present. When treated with .1 to .2% solution of hydrochloric acid it swells up, and at length forms a liquid resembling a solution of albumin, and laevorotatory as regards polarized light. Moistened with water and exposed to the air gluten putrefies, and evolves carbon dioxide, hydrogen and sulphuretted hydrogen, and in the end is almost entirely resolved into a liquid, which contains leucin and ammonium phosphate and acetate. On analysis gluten shows a composition of about 53% of carbon, 7% of hydrogen, and nitrogen 15 to 18%, besides oxygen, and about 1% of sulphur, and a small quantity of inorganic matter. According to H. Ritthausen it is a mixture of glutencasein (Liebig’s vegetable fibrin), glutenfibrin, gliadin (Pflanzenleim), glutin or vegetable gelatin, and mucedin, which are all closely allied to one another in chemical composition. It is the gliadin which confers upon gluten its capacity of cohering to form elastic masses, and of separating readily from associated starch. In the so-called gluten of the flour of barley, rye and maize, this body is absent (H. Ritthausen and U. Kreusler). 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. Gluten is employed in the manufacture of gluten bread and biscuits for the diabetic, 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.
GLUTTON, or Wolverine (Gulo luscus), a carnivorous
mammal belonging to the Mustelidae, or weasel family, and the
sole representative of its genus. The legs are short and stout,
with large feet, the toes of which terminate in strong, sharp
claws considerably curved. The mode of progression is semiplantigrade.
In size and form the glutton is something like the
badger, measuring from 2 to 3 ft. in length, exclusive of the thick
bushy tail, which is about 8 in. long. The head is broad, the
eyes are small and the back arched. The fur consists of an undergrowth
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 the fur
is blackish-brown, with a broad band of chestnut stretching
from the shoulders along each side of the body, the two meeting
near the root of the tail. Unlike the majority of arctic animals,
the fur of the glutton in winter grows darker. Like other
Mustelidae, the glutton is provided with anal glands, which
secrete a yellowish fluid possessing a highly foetid odour. It
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. The wolverine is a voracious
animal, and also one with an inquisitive disposition. It feeds
on grouse, the smaller rodents and foxes, which it digs from
their burrows during the breeding-season; but want of activity
renders it dependent for most of its food on dead carcases, which
it frequently obtains by methods that 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
on the second, hiding the remainder beneath the snow. It
annoys the trapper by following up his lines of marten-traps,
often extending to a length of 40 to 50 m., each of which it 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 of his business. This is 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 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 carefully concealed,
to lull the knowing beast’s suspicions. One of the most
prominent characteristics of the wolverine is its propensity
to steal and hide things, not merely food which it might afterwards
need, or traps which it regards as enemies, but articles
which cannot possibly have any interest except that of curiosity.
The Glutton, or Wolverine (Gulo luscus).
The following instance of this is quoted by Dr E. Coues in his work on the Fur-bearing Animals of North America: “A hunter and his family having left their lodge unguarded 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 property.” The cunning displayed by the glutton in unravelling the snares set for it forms at once the admiration and despair of every trapper, while its great strength and ferocity render it a dangerous antagonist to animals larger than itself, occasionally including man. The rutting-season occurs in March, and the female, secure in her burrow, produces her young—four or five at a birth—in June or July. In defence of these, she is exceedingly bold, and the Indians, according to Dr Coues, “have been heard to say that they would sooner encounter a she-bear with her cubs than a carcajou (the Indian name of the glutton) under the same circumstances.” On catching sight of its enemy, man, the wolverine before finally determining on flight, is said to sit on its haunches, and, in order to get a clearer view of the danger, shade its eyes with one of its fore-paws. When pressed for food it becomes fearless, and has been known to come on board an ice-bound vessel, and in presence of the crew seize a can of meat. The glutton is valuable for its fur, which, when several skins are sewn together, forms elegant hearth and carriage rugs. (R. L.*)
GLYCAS, MICHAEL, Byzantine historian (according to some a Sicilian, according to others a Corfiote), flourished during the 12th century A.D. His chief work is his Chronicle of events
