THE DESTRUCTION OF INVERTASE BY ACIDS AND ALKALIS AT 



30 C. 



The destruction of invertase by acids and alkalis at 30 C. was 

 measured by mixing a portion of well dialyzed invertase solution 

 with the appropriate acid or alkaline solution, removing portions of 

 this mixture after definite intervals of time and measuring their 

 activities after bringing them to a uniform condition of slight acidity 

 with acetic acid in order to find the maximum activity which is a 

 measure of the quantity of invertase in the solution. If the activities 

 of the successively removed samples showed a decrease it was con- 

 cluded that the invertase was being destroyed by the acid or alkaline 

 solution. The following typical experiment shows that the rate of 



0.004 0.008 0.0/2 O.O/6 O.O20 O.024 



O.O32 O.O36 O.O4O 0.044 



FIG. 1. Influence of acids on the activity of invertase. 



destruction follows the formula for unimoecular reactions, 



1 A 



where A is the activity of the invertase 



& 2 , 



this 



namely, , log 



at the beginning of the destruction, x is the activity after the destruc- 

 tion has proceeded for t minutes, and & 2 is a constant, the velocity- 

 coefficient. The concentration of acid in this experiment was 0.02 

 normal hydrochloric. 



TABLE 3. The unimolecular order of the destruction of invertase. 



[Cir. 55] 



