ENZYMES AS SYNTHETIC AGENTS 121 



such statements as those of Fernbach and Wolff 1 as to the 

 existence of a coagulating diastase, and to suspend judgment 

 upon statements as to the production of starch from sugars 

 within the cell upon concentration of the sap by plasmolysis. 2 



Possibly light may be thrown upon the question by the 

 similar but perhaps simpler problem of the synthesis of glycogen, 3 

 upon which Cremer and others have conducted investigations. 



While progress may be slow, recent work on the chemical 

 constitution of starch seems to hold out much hope, in suggesting 

 that the molecules of the substance are perhaps more simply 

 constituted than one has dared to hope; 4 in this case their 

 ultimate synthesis will be an experimental problem admitting 

 more readily of the construction of the hypotheses which lead 

 to the laboratory. 



(Note. — If it proves possible to utilise physical methods on a 

 sufficiently large scale, new methods may possibly be provided 

 to the physiologist enabling him gently to break up his unwieldy 

 molecules into more recognisable constituents. Ultra-violet 

 radiation seems likely to be largely employed as a tool in such 

 investigations ; see for instance the recent investigations of 

 Berthelot and Gaudechon 5 and many others. Professor Bragg, 

 in drawing my attention to recent work on these lines, in which 

 X-rays were used, 6 suggested to me that in these cases we may 

 have in a large molecule more than one collision resulting from 

 the passage of the /3-particle through its constituent atoms ; there 

 will then result two or more charges of the same sign upon 

 the molecule, and inevitably disturbance of the distribution 

 of its surface energy will follow, probably accompanied by 

 the disruption of the molecule. 7 ) 



1 Comptes Rendus, 1903, 137, p. 718. 



3 Overton, Vierteljahrsschr . d. natur. Ges in Zurich, 1899, 44, P- 88. 



3 Chem. Ber., 1899, 32, p. 2062. 



4 See note in Science Progress, October 1912, referring to recent work of 

 Pringsheim. 



8 Comptes Rendus. See also Bierry, Henri, and Rane, Comptes Rendus, 151, 

 p. 316, etc. 



6 Colwell and Russ, Nature, vol. 90, p. 531. 



7 See also Bragg, Nature, vol. 90-, p. 531. 



