386 Prof. J. B. Green. On the 



De'Saussure has traced out the same process, showing, too, that there 

 is during the germination a constant absorption of oxygen. Even 

 more light is thrown upon the point by the statement of Grodlewski,* 

 that this absorption of oxygen is not, as De Saussure believed, greater 

 than the output of C0 2 throughout the whole period. He states that 

 it is not till the radicle protrudes that the oxygen is taken up in 

 greater quantity, and he points out that as the fat disappears from 

 the seed, the inequality between the oxygen absorbed and the CO 2 

 exhaled gets less and less. It is just at this period that the fatty acid 

 is being replaced by the dialysable one, as shown in the tables given 

 above. That gentle oxidation of the fatty acids is possible is shown 

 by Hazura and Griissner,t who state that when alkaline solutions of 

 the liquid fatty acids of castor oil are oxidised by permanganate of 

 potash several derivatives are formed, including some of the lower 

 members of the series of fatty acids. KrafftJ also states that when 

 ricinoleic acid is oxidised with nitric acid, normal heptylic acid is 

 formed, together with azelaic and oxalic acids. Unfortunately, I have 

 not been able to get sufficient quantity of the acid which is formed 

 during germination to enable me to ascertain its identity. The plant 

 itself at that age is very small, and though the reaction of the acid to 

 litmus-paper is very well marked, the quantities occurring in any case 

 are too small for analysis. 



The disappearance of the glycerine is, in all probability, to be asso- 

 ciated with the appearance of the sugar. The possible sources of the 

 latter are only three, the fatty acids, the proteids, and the glycerine. 

 That sugar results from the former of these is very unlikely. Theo- 

 retically there seems to be a possibility of the change, but no labo- 

 ratory experiments have yet succeeded in bringing it about. Fischer 

 has recently shown that certain acids can, by a process of reduction, 

 give rise to sugar, but these are not such acids as those occurring 

 here. The great probability, too, of the fate of the fatty acids being 

 that suggested above weighs heavily against their furnishing the 

 sugar. The proteids, too, can be accounted for in another way, as 

 appears below. There remains, then, only the glycerine. 



Fischer has established the fact that the transformation of 

 glycerine into sugar is possible, and the famous experiments of 

 Luchsinger|| upon glycerine as an antecedent of glycogenin the course 

 of the hepatic metabolism bear upon the same point. The ready 

 appearance of sugar is, by this hypothesis, accounted for, and the 

 fact that it appears side by side with the fatty acid in the endosperm 



* Pringsheim, ' Jahrb. Botan.,' vol. 13, 1882. 



t ' Monatsh. f. Chemie,' vol. 9, pp. 475 484. 



' Deutsch. Chem. Ges. Ber.,' vol. 21, 1888, pp. 27302737. 



' Deutsch. Chem. Ges. Ber.,' vol. 22, p. 2204. 



|| Pfluger'a ' Archiv,' vol. 8, 1874, and vol. 18, 1878. 



