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process, occurs in the liquid state and is not solid, — hence, a 
new argument for the more and more prevailing opinion, that the 
living protoplasm is, if not quite, at least partly liquid. That the 
juice can be precipitated with alcohol, without the precipitate becoming 
inactive, proves nothing for the enzyme-hypothesis, as in many other 
eases the living protoplasm is proof against the action of alcohol. 
If it be thought desirable to use the name of ,protoplasm” only 
for the mixture of the living matter such as it occurs in the cell, 
and to connect with that term the idea ofa special structure, I can quite 
well share this view, and will allow that, in this case, the decomposition 
of the carbonic acid is brought about by something else but “the prot- 
oplasm’’, namely by a portion of it. To this portion, or rather, 
to this particular constituent of the protoplasm, the name of “oxy- 
biophores” or “oxy-pangens’ might be given, in accordance with 
the theory of biophores or pangenesis. With what has always been 
understood by enzymes, the properties of the biophores do not coincide 
but, of course, they do with those of the protoplasm itself’). 
With crushed algae I could also perform the above experiment, 
but the secretion of oxygen was much slighter than with the sap 
of the examined land-plants. 
On the other hand, algae which have not been crushed, whether 
enclosed in a mixture of culture-gelatin and luminous bacteria, or 
simply in sea water rendered luminous by phosphorescent bouillon, 
are very well fit to study the secretion of oxygen in the light 
and its relation to the colour of the light. 
Some years hence, Prof. KAMERLINGH ONNES, at Leiden, had the 
kindness to enable me to make an investigation thereabout in his 
laboratory. Our experiment was conducted as follows. 
Between two glass-plates was enclosed fish-bouillon-gelatin diluted 
with sea-water, and thus containing 3 pCt. Cl Na, which by a great 
number of phosphorescent bacteria (Photobacter phosphorescens), mixed 
with it, was highly luminous at sufficient access of oxygen. In the 
middle of the gelatin I had placed, before the solidification, a broad 
stripe of a sea-Ulva. 
In the dark the gelatin quickly loses its luminosity, the glass- 
plates rendering access of air impossible. When exposed to the 
light, the Ulva produces oxygen through the decomposition of 
1) This observation holds also good with regard to BucuNer’s, alcohol-enzyme”, of 
which the active agent consists In valcohol-biophores” 
