The Organisation of Matter 



And by entirely different means Bredig and 

 von Berneck have shown that the action of 

 enzymes is not connected with any unknown 

 vital property. If two rods of platinum, gold 

 or silver, are immersed in water or any other 

 isolating liquid, and connected to the two poles 

 of a battery of accumulators, and, after having 

 been placed in contact for a moment, they 

 are separated, an electric arc is established 

 within the liquid between the two rods; the 

 liquid now gradually loses its transparency. 

 It contains in the form of an impalpable powder, 

 invisible to the most powerful microscope, the 

 fragments of the metal pulverised by the arc. 

 In this state of extreme sub-division, called 

 the colloidal state, metals present some very 

 peculiar properties. 



They are coagulable by heat, by salts, by 

 acids and by bases. They can, by their presence, 

 activate certain chemical reactions, decompose 

 sugar, transform alcohol into acetic acid. Their 

 function appears then to be entirely similar 

 to that of enzymes, because an infinitesimal 

 proportion of the metal suffices to determine 



the reaction ; thus one part of colloidal platinum 



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