GERMIXATION OF SEEDS. 229 



The position has now been reached in which it is desir- 

 able to discuss the agency through which the proteo-hydro- 

 lysis is effected. In 1874 von Gorup-Besanez stated that 

 he had extracted protease from several seeds and kiln-dried 

 malt, capable of converting" fibrin into peptone. Shortly 

 after Krauch criticised the methods of von Gorup-Besanez, 

 and instituted experiments which in every case gave nega- 

 tive results. About the same time Schulze claimed to have 

 found peptones in the seedlings of Cucurbita Pepo and 

 Lupinus luteus, the quantity being very small. The know- 

 ledge was, however, at that time insufficient to enable dis- 

 crimination between proteoses and peptones to be effected ; 

 the seedlings may have hence contained either or both. 

 More recently Reynolds Green has attacked the subject, 

 and stated that a protease exists in seedlings of Lupinus 

 hirsutus and Ricinus communis resembling trypsin in its 

 hydrolytic intensity. The proof adduced in support of this 

 is not, however, quite convincing. The most truly satis- 

 factory work on this subject is that of Neumeister, who has 

 lately criticised his predecessors, and examined a large 

 number of seeds and seedlings. He was unable to dis- 

 cover a protease in any hypnotic seed, but found one in 

 seedlings, although not in all. Wherever protease was 

 found peptones were also demonstrated, but these occurred 

 also in seedlings in which no protease could be detected. 

 This was found to be due to pre-existence of peptone in 

 the seeds of the latter. The amount of protease and pep- 

 tones demonstrable varied in different species. The pro- 

 tease proved to resemble pepsin in so far as the hydrolysis 

 ceased after peptonisation, and the reaction occurred only 

 in acid solution. But it differed from pepsin in being de 

 stroyed by hydrochloric acid, requiring an organic acid for 

 manifestation of its activity. Unlike trypsin it was destroyed 

 by alkalies. 



Since no protease resembling trypsin in its action has 

 been demonstrated with certainty in seedlings, there is 

 difficulty in accounting for the origin of the nitrogenous 

 compounds detailed above, which undoubtedly arise at the 

 cost of reserve-proteins. Is it possible that the protease 



