ELECTROLYTIC CLEAVAGE OF SUGAR 343 



that of pure water) , glycolysis is insignificant ; but if phos- 

 phates be added a very appreciable increase takes place. 35 

 The same author also makes the very instructive statement 

 that the iron-containing coloring matter of the blood, in 

 spite of its unequivocal peroxidase character, is not able to 

 affect glucose even in the presence of peroxide of hydrogen; 

 while substances which may be obtained from an alcoholic 

 extract of pancreas when treated with salts of iron, effect a 

 marked cleavage of sugar in which (along with small quanti- 

 ties of formic acid, polyoxy acids and carbonic acid) the chief 

 products are pentose and formaldehyde. 36 Manganese and 

 potassium are also capable of accelerating alkali-hydrolysis 

 of sugar, according to Slosse. 37 It is without question not 

 an easy matter to properly judge the physiological value of 

 such observations ; but we cannot go far astray in assuming 

 the association of some kind of catalyzing agencies in the 

 processes of sugar cleavage in the economy. A wide and 

 gratifying field of research in physical chemistry is opening 

 in this connection. 



The closely related question, how the economy, if it be 

 capable of catabolizing sugar with such readiness, should 

 come to have the special power of storing up large reserves 

 of carbohydrate, may, perhaps, in the opinion of Jolles, be 

 answered by supposing that glycogen, because it does not 

 possess free aldehyde groups, is acted upon with much more 

 difficulty than sugar ; and that in this manner the economy 

 protects the dextrose from the catabolizing influence of the 

 alkali by storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscles. 38 



Electrolytic Cleavage of Sugar. Walter Lob 39 and, inde- 

 pendently, Carl Neuberg, 40 undoubtedly followed a valuable 



35 W. Lob (Virchow Krankenhaus, Berlin), Biochem. Zeitschr., 32, 43, 1911. 

 26 W. Lob and C. Pulvermacher, Biochem. Zeitschr., 29, 316, 1910. 



37 A. Slosse, Bull, de la Soc. Roy. des Sciences me"d., Brussels, May 5, 1911. 



38 A. Jolles, Wiener med. Wochenschr., 1911, No. 45. 



39 W. Lob, Biochem. Zeitschr., 17, 132, 1909. 



40 C. Neuberg, in association with L. Scott and S. Lachmann, Biochem. 

 Zeitschr., 17, 270, 1909; &, 152, 1910. 



