CHANGES OF MOLECULAR STRUCTURE, DUE TO SWELLING 85 



The conditions existing at any given time are of the highest impor- 

 tance in determining the nature and extent of the action of an external 

 agency. Thus most seeds when dried can be heated to iooC. for a time 

 without being at all injured thereby, but if saturated with water a tem- 

 perature of 70 C. rapidly kills them. In the same way, starch-grains 

 and proteids l must when dry be heated to a much higher temperature in 

 order to destroy their molecular structure than when saturated with 

 imbibed water. A thorough knowledge of these and similar relation- 

 ships is absolutely essential to enable us to form a correct estimation of 

 all the processes and reactions which take place in the living organism, 

 while in addition these phenomena afford important indications as to the 

 probable molecular structure of organized bodies. 



1 Lewith, Beitrage zur Theorie der Disinfektion, Archiv f. exper. Pathol., i8yo, xxvi, p. 341. 



