272 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



Spitzer (29) also carried out an investigation into the 

 same subject in 1895. He says the glycolytic power is pos- 

 sessed not only by normal blood but that which has been 

 treated with oxalate of potassium, and so rendered un- 

 coagulable. Defibrinated and laky blood also have the 

 same property. Spitzer holds that this glycolysis is not a 

 vital process, but that the blood corpuscles excrete into the 

 serum something which possesses the power of causing it. 

 His work confirms that of Abelous in that he concludes that 

 all living cells possess the property, and that it is one 

 depending on the access of free oxygen. 



Spitzer differs from the other workers quoted in not attri- 

 buting the action to an enzyme, but to the activity of intra- 

 molecular oxygen, comparing it with the oxidation produced 

 by hydrogen peroxide and other oxidising agents. 



Seegen draws the opposite conclusions, and holds that 

 the enzyme is formed by post-mortem changes in the blood. 

 Arthus (30), and Lepine and Barral (31) also have advoca- 

 ted the view that the sugar is destroyed by an enzyme, which 

 they hold to be formed in the white corpuscles. Arthus says 

 that it is destroyed by warming to 55°c, and that it is not 

 present in living blood. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



(1) YOSHIDA. Chemistry of Lacquer. Journal of the CJiemical 



Society, vol. xliii., p. 472, 1883. 



(2) BERTRAND. On the Latex of the Lacquer Tree. Comptes Rend. 



118, 12 1 5, 1894. Also Bull. Soc. Chim. [3] , 11, 717, 1894. 



(3) BERTRAND. On Laccase, an Oxidising Ferment. Comptes 



Rend., 120, 266, 1895. 



(4) BERTRAND. On the Relation Existing between the Chemical 



Constitution of Organic Compounds and their Oxidisability 

 by Laccase. Comptes Rend., 122, 1132, 1896. 



(5) BERTRAND. Comptes Rend., 123,463, 1896. 



(6) BERTRAND. On the Occurrence of Laccase in Plants. Comptes 



Rend., 121, 166, 1895. 



(7) REY-PAILHARDE. On the Occurrence of Laccase in Seeds. 



Comptes Rend., 121, 1162, 1895. 



