Germination of the Seed of the Castor-oil Plant. 377 



the oil. Half the powder was then extracted by the usual solution of 

 NaCl and KCN, while the rest was extracted in the incubator by 

 weak acetic acid, only so strong as to be just perceptible by the 

 tongue. These two extracts were filtered, and labelled respectively A 

 and B, B being then carefully neutralised. Part of A was then 

 acidified with weak acetic acid, and warmed to 35 C. for three hours, 

 and then neutralised. This was labelled C. 



On testing them all with castor oil emulsion in the usual way, side 

 by side with boiled controls, A developed no acid, B and C both 

 showed its liberation, giving evidence of the development of ferment 

 by the weak acetic acid. This behaviour is precisely similar to the 

 influence of the same reagent on extracts of the resting pancreas. 

 On allowing extract A to stand in the laboratory for nine days and 

 then again testing it, there was evidence of the presence of ferment, 

 liberated by keeping it. It was not, however, so active as extract C, 

 where the transformation had been brought about by the acetic 

 acid, 



(ii.) TheProteids. 



The oil is only a part of the reserve material present in the seeds, 

 and as so much proteid matter also is present in their cells, some ex- 

 periments were made to see if a further ferment is present having a 

 proteolytic function. 



The proteid in the seed had been stated by Vines* to be a mixture 

 of peptone and globulin, the crystalloid consisting of the latter. 



Some ground resting seeds were extracted with water and subse- 

 quently with salt solution. Both extracts were found to give a 

 coagulum on boiling, which was most copious in the second case, and 

 separated out completely if a little HN0 3 was added. This was 

 Vines's globulin. After filtering off this precipitate while hot, 

 another proteid was found to be left in solution, which was precipi- 

 tated as the liquid cooled, and redissolved when it was warmed again. 

 There was much less of this than of the first one. No dialysable 

 proteid was present. The first proteid found by Vines was therefore 

 not a peptone, as he supposed, but an albumose.f 



The method adopted in searching for a proteolytic ferment in the 

 germinating seeds was exactly the same as the one I had used in the 

 case of the lupin,J and the results showed that again here, as there, 

 a tryptic ferment is developed during germination, which can split 

 up fibrin with formation of peptone and crystalline bodies, in- 

 cluding tyrosin. 



* Loc. cit. 



t Cf. Martin " On the Proteids in Papau-juice." ' Journal of Physiology," vol. 

 6, p. 354. 



J ' Phil. Trans.,' B, 1887, pp. 3959. 

 VOL. XLVIII. 2 



