BY .TAMKS M. PETRIE. 865 



found byDrechsel that fungi and bacteria maybe grown in solu- 

 tions of the former, especially the oxidised forms (juercitol and 

 quinic acid. It has also been proved that when phenol is ex- 

 posed for some time to the alternating electric current, it is first 

 comerted to hexamethylene derivatives, before being finally 

 oxidised and split up into various fatty acids.* 



Though there are many instances of the closing up of open 

 chain carbon compounds into ring compounds, such as the con- 

 version of citral into C3^mol, the cyclo-citrals, and terpenes; 

 geraniol into dipentene, etc.; yet no such conversions have been 

 accomplished between the carbohydrates and the inositols 

 Griffin and Nelson, in their researches on inositol and pinite, 

 tried by various methods to close up the hexose chain, and to 

 open out the inositol ring, but were entirely unsuccessful. t 



{/)) TJiP biochemical aspect. — On the other hand, in favour of 

 the biochemical possibility, there exist the important observa- 

 tions of Neuberg: that quercitol and inositol may be reduced in 

 a few minutes to open chain carbohydrates (reducing Fehling's 

 solution, etc.) by the action of sunlight and a catalyser such as 

 uranium salt, also by the action of the alternating current.! 



These processes, however, are all reverse reactions, resulting 

 in cleavage of the hexamethylene ring. Concerning the direct 

 synthesis — carbohydrate to inositol, we have no evidence at all, 

 and Maquenne had no experimental basis for his belief that the 

 alcohol mannitol was the source of inositol. 



Rosenberger observed tlie appearance of inositol in post mortem 

 tissues, where previously no inositol existed; and he assumed the 

 pre-existence of an "inositogen" from which, by enzyme-action, 

 the inositol was formed. v^ 



The inactive inositol combines with inorganic phosphates, and 

 in this form exists as "phytin" in nearly all living organisms. 

 This substance is always accompanied by the enzyme phytase, 



* Journ. fiir prakt. Chemie, xxxviii., 1888, 60. 

 t Journ. Amer. Chem. Soc, xxxvii., 1915, bjo'i. 



X Biochem, Zeitschrift, xiii., 1908, 308. 

 § Zeitschrift fur physiol. Chemie, Ivi., 1908, 373. 



