RELATIONS TO OTHER SCIENCES 277 



formation ceases, life also ceases, even in the presence of abundance 

 of valuable molecules that build up organisms. Now we are all aware 

 of the fact that there is almost no vital transformation of matter that 

 is not regulated by so-called "catalytic" agents, enzymes, acids, 

 bases, salts, in fact, as not long ago was pointed out, an organism 

 seems an almost perfectly regulated machine for the transformation 

 of matter, and the regulators seem to be the catalytic agents! They 

 determine the speed of chemical changes, and, as Euler states, it seems 

 almost certain that without the catalyzer there would be no trans- 

 formation, no chemical action at all. When, a short time ago, Jacques 

 Loeb startled the world by the artificial fertilization of eggs of sea- 

 urchins and other marine animals by salt solutions of definite com- 

 position and concentrations of their ions, he suggested in one of his 

 addresses that the key to his results would most likely be found in 

 the fact that in all eggs there is a tendency to develop, but that if the 

 development were not hastened so as to reach a certain stage within 

 a given time-limit, death would follow without the production of the 

 young animal. But if the development were accelerated sufficiently, 

 a normal development of life would follow. According to Loeb, then, 

 even this fundamental life-fact, the fertilization of eggs, involves 

 probably to a large extent a question of an accelerated reaction, or, as 

 we may say, a "catalytic" problem. In Loeb's experiments and 

 hundreds of others we know what the ultimate results of the cata- 

 lytic reactions are, but we are just beginning to have any experi- 

 mental answers to the question why and how catalyzers exert their 

 marvelous accelerating influences. It may be there is no general 

 answer possible to this question which would cover all cases - - we 

 can only know after the study of a large number of individual cases. 

 In this semi-darkness we may distinguish for the present two classes 

 of catalytic reactions, first those produced by so-called heterogeneous 

 or physical agents, like platinum black, and secondly those produced 

 by what may be called homogeneous chemical catalyzers such as 

 acids, alkalies, salts. In an endeavor to ascertain in some individual 

 case the exact manner in which a catalytic agent acts, a reaction of 

 the second simpler class was chosen, namely, the thoroughly studied 

 catalysis of an ester like methyl acetate under the influence of acids 

 and water. As we all know, the facts are the following: the saponi- 

 fication of methyl acetate by water according to the equation 



CH 3 C0 2 CH 3 + H 2 O ?=> CH 3 CO 2 H + CH 3 OH 



proceeds exceedingly slowly. Acids greatly accelerate the saponi- 

 fication proportionately to the concentration of the hydrogen ions 

 used. It has been established by Knoblauch and Kistiakonsky that 

 the ultimate condition of equilibrium of the reversible reaction is 

 not sensibly altered by the catalyzer, in other words, that the acid 



