492 Intellisethce and Miscellaneous Articles. 



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very great affinity for water, did not produce the same effect, 

 Mitsclierlich showed that if alcohol be poured upon sulphuric acid, 

 at a temperature higher than that of boiling water, water and sether 

 are distilled together and form a mixture, the weight of which is 

 precisely equal to that of the alcohol employed. Thus the sulphu- 

 ric docs not there act in consequence of its affinity for water ; its 

 action is analogous to that of the alkalis on the binoxide of hydro- 

 gen J and that of sulphuric acid upon starch in the formation of 

 sugar. 



It is then proved that many bodies, both simple and compound, 

 soluble and insoluble, have the property of exerting on other bodies 

 an action which is very different from chemical affinity. By means 

 of this action they produce decompositions in bodies, and form new 

 compounds into the composition of which they do not enter. 



This new power, hitherto unknown, is common, both in organic 

 and inorganic nature. 1 do not believe that it is a power which is en- 

 tirely independent of the electro-chemical affinities of the substance; 

 I believe, on the contrary, that it is merely a new form of it ; but as 

 long as we do not see their connection and mutual dependence, it 

 will be more convenient to describe it by a separate name. I shall 

 therefore ca-1 it catalytic power, I shall also call Catalysis the de- 

 composition of bodies by this force, in the same way as the decom- 

 position of bodies by chemical affinity is termed analysis. 



The following are the questions which occur relative to this cata- 

 lytic power: 



Can this catalytic power produce differences in catalytic pro- 

 ducts, according to its greater or less intensity ? 



Can different bodies possessing catalytic power produce different 

 catalytic effects upon the same compound substance? 



Can bodies which possess catalytic power exert this action on a 

 great number of different compound substances, or is this action 

 confined to a ^ew substances ? 



These questions can be answered only by extended researches ; 

 it is enough at present to have established the existence of this power 

 by a sufficient number of examples. This power gives rise to nu- 

 merous applications in organic nature ; thus it is only around the 

 eyes of the potato that diastase exists ; it is by means of catalytic 

 power that diastase, and that starch which is insoluble, is converted 

 into sugar and into jam, which being soluble form the sap that rises 

 in the germs of the potato. This evident example of the action of 

 catalytic power in an organic secretion is not probably the only one 

 in the animal and vegetable kingdom, and it may hereafter be dis- 

 covered that it is by an action analogous to that of catalytic power 

 that the secretion of such different bodies is produced, all which are 

 supplied by the same matter, — the sap in plants and the blood in 

 animals. 



M. LEVEII.LE ON THE HYMENIUM OF FUNGI. 



M. L^veille lately presented to the Academy of Sciences of Paris 



