304 Kansas Academy of Science. 



the ultra microscope, to be nothing more than finely divided metal 

 solutions; that's all. 



Further experiments with these suspensions proved them to 

 have the same properties as do the vegetable and the animal en- 

 zymes, when brought into the field with certain other products. 

 For example, both these enzyme types will cause peroxide of hy- 

 drogen to split up into water and oxygen gas. One gram of en- 

 zyme in 300,000,000 grams of water is found to be sufficient, when 

 added to any quantity of peroxide, to affect the peroxide in the 

 same way. In trying to control these apparent powers of the en- 

 zymes and colloidal suspensions we were to find that there are 

 certain well-defined "paralyzers" for these agents in the inorganic 

 field; such, for example, as corrosive sublimate, cyanogen iodide, 

 carbon monoxide, arsenic — all of them agents that will restrain 

 the activity of the enzyme or suspension for a definite time, after 

 which the affected enzyme resumes its normal character. In the 

 making of these studies it was emphatically noted that the most 

 deadly paralyzers of these enzymes and colloidals, in their reac- 

 tions on salts in solution, were also most dangerous paralyzers of 

 the functions of animal and plant life. Straightway, then, the idea 

 forced itself upon the thoughtful student that, since the enzymes 

 are most intimately associated with the life of the cell, even more 

 so than is the protoplasm, since the enzyme will work outside of 

 the field of its producing protoplasm, and since these catalysts are 

 in every nook and corner of the body — therefore the study of "the 

 w^hy" of the poisonous activity in question s'^ould lead to further 

 knowledge in the study of the maintenance of life. In our inves- 

 tigations we were able, in spite of the subtle and complex form of 

 the organism which produced the enzyme used, to produce arti- 

 ficially, by synthesis, a something that proved a counterpart of the 

 enzyme. But, as to how it might become possible to eliminate or 

 dispense with the poisonous paralyzers of the excretions after these 

 had been used, "Aye, there (was) the rub." 



The science of technology was at that time, however, forcing the 

 attention of all true students upon itself ; and we were having the 

 idea dingdonged into our ears that there was a crying need in the 

 field for experts who could unlock mysteries of commercial exploit- 

 ation by the cheapening of processes. Then, forthwith, the start- 

 ling information was sent percolating through our brains that the 

 very catalytic reactions above detailed were now being depended 

 upon to convert the raw dross material of the earth into the riches 

 of the dream of the alchemist through the tense-nerved and tireless 



