^188 Formation of Organic Bodies, 



of certain affinities which at that temperature remained inactive, 

 so as to determine, in consequence of a new arrangement of the 

 elements of the compound, a new state of perfect electro-chemical 

 neutralization. As this agent acts generally in a manner analo- 

 gous to heat, it may be demanded, if being differently graduated, 

 sometimes by a different mode of using the same catalytic body, 

 sometimes by the introduction of different catalytic bodies in the 

 same liquid, it would produce, as we often see in the action of 

 different temperatures, different catalytic products ; and if, on 

 the other hand, the catalytic power of a body can exert itself 

 upon a great number of compound bodies, or whether, as our 

 experiments appear to indicate, only upon certain bodies, to the 

 exception of others ? But in the present state of our knowledge 

 it is impossible to decide these questions, as well as many others 

 which might be agitated on the subject ; and their solution must 

 be left for future research. It is sufficient, for the present, to 

 have demonstrated the existence of this power by a number of 

 examples; which power, as now explained, sheds a light al- 

 together new upon chemical agency in organized bodies. We 

 shall give only one example: round the eye of the potato 

 we find a portion of diastase accumulated, which is totally 

 wanting in the tuber itself, and in the developed germ : in this 

 point we recognise a catalytic centre of action, in which the in- 

 soluble starch of the tuber is changed into gum and sugar ; and 

 this portion of the potato becomes the secreting organ of those 

 soluble substances, which go to form the juices of the nascent 

 germ. It is not at all likely that the action now mentioned 

 should be the only one of its kind in vegetable life ; on the other 

 hand, we may decidedly presume that in vegetables, as well as 

 in the animal body, a thousand catalytic effects take place be- 

 tween the solids and the fluids, whence really result the great 

 number of different chemical compounds, whose production at 

 the expense of the same physical fluid which we call blood, or 

 vegetable juice, is to be explained by no other known cause. 

 —From Jahrhuch fur 1836. — Von H. C, Schumacher, Ber~ 

 zelius, Bessel, Gauss, Moser^ Olbers, and PaucMr. Stuttgart^ 

 18^6. 



