17(3 Ukpout of the Chemical Depaktmei^t of thb 



considerable. However, these results do not enable us to know 

 whether the chloroform exercised any restraining influence upon 

 the activity of the enzyme. Any such repressing effect of chlo- 

 roform upon enzyme action could be directly shown only by 

 using as a means of comparison milk containing no chloroform, 

 but under such conditions the action of bacteria would render 

 the comparison worthless. 



A comparison of the changes produced in the bottles contain- 

 ing the different percentages of chloroform shows a surprisingly 

 small decrease of change in bottles having the larger propor- 

 tions of chloroform. This tends to show that chloroform 

 restrains enzyme action only slightly. 



The germ content, even in the bottles containing only 2.5 per 

 ct. of chloroform, was so small that the observed changes were 

 undoubtedly due to the enzymes present in the milk at the begin- 

 ning of the experiment. 



EFFECT OF VARYING PERCEXTAGES OF FAT UPON THB ANTISEPTIC 



TALCB OF CHLOROFORM. 



In the case of ether, Babcock and Russell ^^ have shown that 

 it has a strong tendency to combine with the fat present in such 

 a way as not to exert its anaesthetic influence. For this reason 

 rich cream could hardly be kept from decomposing through 

 bacterial action when ether was used. 



To test this phase of the question with chloroform, two series 

 of bottles were prepared. The first contained 10 per ct. and the 

 second 20 per ct. of butter-fat and in each series duplicate 

 bottles contained 2.5, 5, 10 and 20 per ct. of chloroform. 



In order that the transformations in each of the bottles in the 

 two series should be directly comparable when expressed in per- 

 centages of total nitrogen, it was necessary that for a given 

 quantity of nitrogen in any bottle there should also be present a 

 corresponding amount of enzyme. 



In order to maintain these relations, each bottle contained 

 900 cc. of a mixture made up of 540 cc. of whole milk, together 

 with sufficient chloroform and melted butter-fat to give the 



"Babcock and Russell. See footnote 10. 



