4 PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY. 



opinion that it is connected with the form-elements and the tis* 

 sues. The question how this oxidation in the form-elements pro- 

 ceeds and how it is induced cannot be answered with certainty. 



In conformity with the views of PFLUGER and others, it is often 

 asserted that the albumin outside of the organism, and also that 

 which circulates in the blood and fluids, is to be regarded as " dead 

 albumin," as distinguished from that which is converted by the work 

 of the living, active cell into living protoplasm "living albumin/' 

 The statement has also been made that this living protoplasm 

 albumin is differentiated from the "dead albumin "by a greater 

 mobility of the atoms within the molecule, and it may be char- 

 acterized by a greater inclination towards intramolecular changes 

 of position of these atoms. The reason for this greater inner 

 movement PFLUGER ascribes to the presence of certain groups, 

 such as cyanogen, while LOEW attributes it to the presence of alde- 

 hydic groups in the albumen molecule. 



In these differences between ordinary albumins and living 

 protoplasm albumin PFLUGER sees the reason for the animal oxi- 

 dation processes which show certain similarity to the oxidation of 

 phosphorus in air containing oxygen. In the last-mentioned 

 process the phosphorus is not only itself oxidized, but, as it splits 

 the oxygen molecule and sets free oxygen atoms (active oxygen), 

 it may also have at the same time an indirect or secondary 

 oxidizing action upon other bodies present. In an analogous way 

 the living protoplasm albumin, which is not, like the dead albu- 

 min, indifferent to neutral oxygen, can disintegrate the oxygen 

 molecule, thus becoming itself oxidized, and at the same time the 

 setting free of oxygen atoms may cause a secondary oxidation of 

 other less oxidizable substances. 



Another very widely-diffused view exists in regard to the origin 

 of the activity of the oxygen, so that by the decomposition pro- 

 cesses in the tissues reducing substances are formed which split 

 the neutral oxygen molecule, uniting with one oxygen atom and 

 setting the other free. 



The formation of reducing substances by fermentation and 

 putrefaction is generally known. The butyric fermentation of 

 sugar in which hydrogen is set free C 6 H 12 6 = C,H 8 2 -f- 2C0 2 

 -j- 2(H 2 ) is an example of this kind. Another example is the 



