68 OFT. ACTI v.. HEREDITY AND ENTIF0X3IEXT 



fermentation, B. pasteurianuni, formed dextrorotatory 

 amyl alcohol (an excess of 5 to 18 per cent) from the same 

 initial aldehyde. Analogous results were also obtained 

 with Bacterium pasteurianum in acetone preparations. 



6, P r o d u c t i n of Optical Isomers by 

 Esterases. The data of Willstatter and his collabor- 

 ators on the stereochemical specificity of esterases, the en- 

 zymes which catalyse the hydrolysis of the ethers of dif- 

 ferent organic acids, are of special interest in the present 

 problem. Some of these data are presented in Table 14, 

 but for more complete information we refer the readers to 

 the review by Rona and Amnion (1933). 



In the majority of cases the esterase from liver and 

 the esterase from pancreas catalyze the hydrolysis of op- 

 tically inverse forms in initial racemic substrates. 



c. P r o d u c t i o n of Optical Isomers by 

 Optically Active Alkaloid Catalysts. 

 Bredig and Fajans (1908) and Fajans (1910), in their 

 classical investigations on the decomposition of racemic 



TABLE 13 



Optical Activity of Maxdelic Acid Produced by Various 

 Microorganisms from Phenyl-Glyoxal 



