MiseellaneoiLS Papers. 307 



Doctor Lohnis, of Leipzig, had proved that certain bacteria that 

 subsist upon nitrogen possess, by the catalytic action of their own 

 excretions, the power of fixing the nitrogen of the air in the soil. 

 Doctor Frank had produced cyanamide of lime from the nitrogen 

 of the air, and be had demonstrated that when this cyanamide is 

 brought into conjunction with sarcosin and air there is produced, 

 by the catalytic action of the latter, the veritable flesh of animals 

 — the cells, in fact, of extract of beef. This great achievement of 

 the chemical catalytic transformation of vegetable into animal 

 substance was announced in the terms of the following purely 

 theoretical equation : 



4 C3H7O2N + 5N + CaCNa = 3 C4H2O2N3 + CaCN. + 2 H2O + 18H 



Sarcosin + air + cyanamide = kreatin 4- cyanamide + water + hydrogen. 



Astounding, indeed, is all this ; but why were we not to learn 

 of some further development of this revolutionizing, potent catal- 

 ysis, in that we have thus come the better to understand its laws. 



II. CATALYSIS APPLIED TO THE MAN-LIFE. 



Right at the above-indicated period physiological chemistry was 

 following this perplexing theme of ours. By its light we were fast 

 becoming aware that all of the body processes are no more, no less, 

 than a series of well-developed catalytic actions. The theories of 

 the leaders of our forerunners in physical chemistry were impreg- 

 nated with the idea of the "opsonian" theory or hypothesis of the 

 blood. Doctor Koch, of Germany, had developed this phase of 

 experimentation ahead of any of the other chemists of his day. 

 He had proved that white blood corpuscles have an appetite; that 

 they do devour microbes when their appetite is keen. To prove 

 this thesis to our own satisfaction we personally performed his 

 suggested experiment, as follows: 



Segregated white blood corpuscles, exhaustively washed and 

 plasma-free, were maintained in a salt solution. It then developed, 

 on experiment, that these corpuscles, even when raised to blood 

 heat, are indifferent to bacteria. But upon the addition of blood- 

 plasma they consume their fill of the microbe life. A process this 

 of "benevolent assimilation." 



The above experiment proved one or the other of two things to 

 be true: either there is something in the blood- plasma that stimu- 

 lates the white blood corpuscles, or else the plasma must prepare 

 the microbes so that they are ready to be devoured. 



Immediately, now, the thought was inwardly suggested to the 

 experimenter that the blood-plasma must, in its effusions, hold out 

 some catalytic agent toward the white corpuscle, the nucleus sub- 



