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KozLowsKi : Primary Synthesis of Proteids 



55 



Ether of the diazo-oxy 

 acrylic acid. 



Ether of the diazo-lactic 



acid. 



II 

 C(OII) 



CH.N^ 



or 



H(OH) 



CO-O-CH. 



CO-O-CH. 



These facts show the possibility of such a reaction, as was sug- 

 gested both in animals and in plants which explain two very gen- 

 eral physiological facts, viz. : 



1. That tlic terminal products of disintegration of the proteid 

 molecule are different in plants and in animals. 



2. That green plants cannot use the ammoniacal compounds 

 for the production of proteids, while the mediating links in that 

 process are amides, compounds with hydrogcnized nitrogen and 

 not with the oxydized one as is found in nitric acid. 



The first is explained by the fact that in the animal organisms 

 there arc no conditions for the production of nitrous acid, while 

 in plants it might be produced as one of the stages of deoxidation 

 of the nitric acid. The second, by the necessity of that acid for 

 green plants and thus the Impossibility of omitting that stage of 

 deoxidation and of beginning the process with compounds contain- 

 ing only hydrogenizcd nitrogen. (In fungi, as we know, the process 

 must be different, and it is proved that they can use the amidic 

 ammoniacal compounds as supply of nitrogen.) 



The logic of chemistry seems to impose upon us this hypothesis 

 with almost Irresistible necessity. All that we know about the 

 chemical process in organisms teaches us that these processes are 

 produced so as to pass through all the consecutive stages and 

 compounds mediating between the Initial and the terminal one. If 

 we represent the transition from nitric acid to the amides through 

 all known stages of reduction we obtain the following series of 

 groups : 



Nitro. 



Nitroso. 



Diazotic. 



Hydrazines. 



Ammonia 

 and amides 



NO 



NO 



N 



N 



H,N 



NH 



NH 



We sec thus that the diazo compounds take the middle place be- 

 tween the oxidized nitrogen of acids and the hydrogenlzcd of hy- 



■ 



drazines and amides. It is not improbable that the hydrazines 



