2lfi Professor Svante Arrhenius [June 9, 



in their properties were similar to albuminous substances or to tats, 

 namely, glycyl-glycin and triacetin. In the digestion of glycyl-glycin 

 with crepsin, an extract from the stomach, Euler found that the general 

 law for undisturbed monomolecular reactions is valid. The same was 

 found by A. E. Taylor for the saponification of triacetin by means of 

 extract from castor beans. This corresponds to the saponification of 

 an ester by means of sodium hydrate in great excess. This circum- 

 stance seems to indicate that the reaction-products, in the cases for 

 which Schiitz's rule is valid, act on the albuminous substances or fats 

 and not on the ferments. 



V. — Processes in Heterogeneous Systems. 



In processes in heterogeneous systems the same laws are found to 

 be applicable. But a certain part of the acting substance, for instance, 

 a hemolysin or a bacterio-agglutinin, is necessary to induce any action 

 at all, still more if a certain easily measurable action — in these cases 

 a hemolysis of e.g. 30 per cent, of the blood-corpuscles, or the very 

 accurately observable degree of agglutination — w^ould be obtained 

 in, say, 1 hour at 37" C. In such cases the reaction does not, generally, 

 proceed very much further with time. Therefore the rule, that the 

 product q.t of reacting substance and time of reaction regulates the 

 phenomenon, does not hold good for such low concentrations as those 

 just spoken of, but only when the reacting substance (i.e. the hemolysin 

 or bacterio-agglutinin) is present in a considerably greater quantity. 

 In such cases a correction is made for the quantity just necessary to 

 produce a sensible effect. Tliis rule has been verified by Madsen 

 and myself for the hemolytic action of ammonia ; by Madsen and 

 Henderson Smith for the hemolytic action of tetanolysin ; and by 

 Madsen for the agglutinating effect of Coli-agglutinin, which aggluti- 

 nates Bacillus Coli. The following figures for hemolysis by means of 

 ammonia may serve as an instance. The figures give the time in 

 minutes necessary for obtaining a certain degree of hemolysis, i.e. 

 percentage of the emulsionated blood-corpuscles hemolysed at 37° C. 

 The process was carried to an end by rapidly cooling the test-tubes 

 to 0" and centrifuging the red blood-corpuscles at this low tem- 

 perature. 



10 20 30 40 



Degree of hemolysis \n\ 



percent j 



Attenuation of tlie ara-| 

 monia l/f/ : 1 j 



Ditto 0-44 



Ditto 0-23 



Ditto 0-133 



The figures calculated according to the q.t rule are written in 

 brackets at the side of the observed ones. The agreement is quite 



