136 LIFE: ITS NATURE AND ORIGIN 



polysaccharides appears in the statement of E. J. Hehre 96 and J. Y. 

 Sugg that a serologically reactive polysaccharide of dextran nature was 

 produced from sucrose by sterile filtered extracts derived from sucrose 

 broth cultures of Leuconostoc rnesenteroides, a Gram-positive coccus 

 widely distributed on plants. "Rigorous controls were included to 

 prove that this reaction occurred in the absence of microorganisms." 

 The polysaccharide was recognized chemically and also by its ability 

 to react with the anti-serums of types 2 and 20 pneumococci, as well as 

 with the anti-serum of the homologous bacteria. 



These and many other facts support the view that the specificity 

 of all species, both plant and animal, stem from, or least involve, 

 differences in the basic biocatalysts. The visible forms with which 

 taxonomy deals, and even the specific substances which biochem- 

 ists isolate and identify, are mainly an aftermath. The basis of 

 species specificity and even of evolution rests largely on bio- 

 catalysts and their changes. 



REFERENCES 



i Jahesberichte (1836), 15, 237. 



2 Pharmaceutisches Centralblatt (later Chemisches Centralblatt), Feb. 6th, 1836, 



p. 82. 



3 "Further information on this subject may be had in the article by Berzelius in 

 Schumacher's Jahrbuch for 1836, pp. 88-97." 



4 "Liquid Diffusion Applied to Analysis," read before the Royal Society (London) 

 June 13th, 1861 (Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. (1861) 151, 183-224). 



5 "Biological Enigmas and the Theory of Enzyme Action," The Am. Naturalist 

 (1917), 41, 326. 



6 Further extracts from Troland's various papers are given by Alexander and 

 Bridges, in Vol. II of "Colloid Chemistry," pp. 19-21 (Reinhold Pub. Corp., 1928), 

 in a paper entitled "Some Physicochemical Aspects of Life, Mutation and Evolu- 

 tion." 



7 Presented before the Genetics Section of the American Society of Zoologists and 

 the Botanical Society of America on Dec. 28th, 1928 (Science (1929) , 70, 508-510) . 



8 "Catalysis and Its Industrial Applications," in "Colloid Chemistry," Vol. VI, 

 Reinhold Pub. Corp., 1946. 



9 Berkman, Morrell and Egloff ("Catalysis — Inorganic and Organic," Reinhold 

 Pub. Corp., 1940) give an extensive list of catalysts for many different types of 

 chemical reactions, including hydrogenation and dehydrogenation, oxidation, hydra- 

 tion and dehydration, cyclization, halogenation and dehalogenation, hydrocarbon 

 cracking, polymerization, alkylation, and isomerization. 



10 /. Chem. Soc. (1938, 1761-80, 1845-7). 



11 H. S. Taylor, American Scientist (1946) 34, 59. 



12 /. Soc. Chem. hid. (1903), 22, 1166-1177. 



13 U. S. P. No. 1,604,739, Oct. 26th, 1926, to Charles R. Downs. 



"Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. (1912), 66, 131, Abt. I. 



15 Roughly, the following represent normal rectal temperatures: 



36-38° C ( 96-101° F.)— man, monkey, mule, horse, elephant, rat, mouse. 



