560 CATALASES 



tissues has as little foundation as the assumption of an an- 

 tagonism between them, as declared by the younger Ostwald 

 on the basis of a few studies on lower forms of animal-life, 

 and suggested as being connected with the problem of 

 phototropism. So, too, the assumption of this last-men- 

 tioned author, that catalase plays a part in fertilization proc- 

 esses in the egg, is not satisfactorily established ; and there 

 is just as little clear evidence from the sequential study of 

 the amounts of catalase to be found in course of ontogenetic 

 development. 9 In many tissues the catalase proportions at- 

 tain an importance at very early stages almost comparable 

 to that of adult tissues. However, Battelli and Stern hold 

 there is a relation between the marked increase in catalases 

 noticeable a few days after birth in the liver of guineapigs 

 and the access of function of the organ. Along the same 

 line of thought, in connection with a loss in catalase content 

 in livers the seat of fatty degeneration from phosphorus 

 poisoning, a coincident increase in the catalases in the blood 

 and other tissues has been interpreted as a " compensatory 

 participation by the tissues in catalase production/' In 

 the author's opinion, however, it is at least just as appropri- 

 ate to think of an outflow of the catalases previously fixed 

 in the liver and their distribution by the bloodstream to the 

 tissues. There does not seem to be any contradiction to this 

 view in the fact that catalase experimentally introduced into 

 the bloodstream is soon destroyed ; it is altogether possible 

 that artificially isolated catalase is less well protected 

 against destroying agencies than that which passes into the 

 circulation when the liver becomes involved in fatty degen- 

 eration. Battelli and Stern believe that the ability to inac- 

 tivate catalase is a property of some special substance which 

 they call anticalalase. Such substance cannot, however, be 

 looked upon as a true serum antibody, because (according 



9 Battelli and Stern, 1. c.; L. B. Mendel and C. S. Leavenworth (Yale Univ., 

 New Haven), Amer. Jour, of Physiol., 21, 85, 1908; G. Tallarico (Pavia), 

 Arch, di Farmacol., 7, 535, 1908. 



