VELOCITY OF REACTIONS 



35 



adopted. We may therefore say, that the observed 

 discrepancy from the general laws is more seeming 

 than real. 



The compounds of enzyme and reacting substance 

 seem to play a very important role in this domain, 

 and there is still much work to be done in order to 

 elucidate the consequences of this circumstance. 

 Peculiarly enough some experiments of Madsen and 

 Teruuchi on the decomposition of vibriolysin by 

 means of animal charcoal give similar results, namely, 

 that the decomposed quantity (K.c) in unit of time 

 is nearly independent of the concentration of the 

 lysin, as is seen from the following figures obtained 

 at 12 »5° C. c is the concentration in arbitrary units, 

 K the velocity of reaction. 



The velocity of reaction is nearly inversely pro- 

 portional to the concentration, so that the product 

 Kc, which is proportional to the quantity of lysin 

 decomposed in unit time, is nearly independent of 

 the concentration. At very small concentrations 

 we observe an increase of K with the concentration 



