328 Prof. Pringsheim on Hypochlorin and the 



During these separations, moreover, it is always easily per- 

 ceived that the chlorophyll-colouring-matter is a simple and 

 not a composite colouring-matter ; but even here such pheno- 

 mena may occur as in Fremy's so-called splitting of the 

 chlorophyll-colouring-matter into its component parts. I have 

 already exposed in detail what is erroneous in this notion in 

 my first memoir* on chlorophyll. Here it will be sufficient, 

 in order to exclude beforehand the same misconceptions of the 

 colour-phenomena in the hypochlorin reaction, to call atten- 

 tion briefly to the fact that the chlorophyll-bodies in the 

 tissues, like solutions of chlorophyll, when treated with hydro- 

 chloric acid, undergo a change of their tone of colour before 

 any separation of the solid and fluid constituents, and acquire 

 a golden-yellow tint. During the subsequent displacement 

 of the hypochlorin and oil the greater part of the colouring- 

 matter is carried away by these solvents, which thus, by its 

 strong concentration in the separating drops, acquire the deep 

 reddish-brown colour which renders the reaction so easily 

 recognizable, whilst the solid frameworks remain more or less 

 tinged with the grass-green or more bluish shades of the 

 chlorophyll, and finally may appear but faintly tinted or even 

 quite colourless. 



II. Formation of Hypochlorin in the Seedling. 



The demonstration here given of the general diffusion of 

 hypochlorin and oil in the chlorophyll-bodies, necessarily 

 raises the presumption of a close relation between these 

 bodies, which are so rich in carbon, and the most important 

 physiological function, the assimilatory activity of the green 

 tissues. 



Starch no longer appears to be the most widely diffused, 

 predominant, or even sole formed product, rich in carbon, of 

 the chlorophyll-apparatus ; and this circumstance increases 

 the doubts which a priori exist against the view that the 

 starch-enclosures separated in the solid form constitute the 

 primary product of assimilation. Unquestionably, a priori^ 

 the properties of a fluid or volatile oleaginous substance 

 are much more in accordance with this ; and even the 

 extant observations upon the relative magnitudes of the ex- 

 change of gases during assimilation render it extremely pro- 

 bable that its primary product is not a hydrate of carbon, but 

 a body poorer in oxygen. Moreover, a periodical escape of 

 oleaginous drops from the chlorophyll-bodies into the sur- 



* Monatsb. Berl. Akad. der Wiss., October 1874. 



