THE POSITION OF ALCOfiOLASE. 479 



put forward the opinion that the liberation of carbon dioxide 

 was due to the fission of the plasma, or other causes. Another 

 view that soon obtained prominence and found many supporters 

 was that the fermentation resulted from the insignificant quantity of 

 living plasma still present in the juice a conception by no means 

 novel in connection with enzymes. KUPFER and VOIT (I.), soon 

 after the discovery of cell-less fermentation, expressed the opinion 

 that the same was probably due to fragments of protoplasm ; and 

 ABELES (I.) spoke positively in favour of this hypothesis after 

 advancing several proofs in favour of the theory. The same view 

 was shared by MACFADYEN, MORRIS, and ROWLAND (I.), BEIJER- 

 INCK (XXVII.), WEHMER (XXXIII.), BEHRENS (XVII.), C. J. 



LlNTNER (VII.), SOXHLET (II.), IWANOWSKI and OfiRASTZOW (I.), 



and H. FISCHER (I. and II.). On the other hand, DUCLAUX 

 (XXI.), R. GREEN (IV.), REY-PAILHADE (V.), PFEFFER (VII.), 

 A. RICHTER (II.), and A. J. J. VANDEVELDE (II.) supported the 

 purely enzymatic theory of fermentation. 



At present we will only refer to the views of Abeles and of 

 Macfadyen, Morris, and Rowland. ABELES (I.) says: "The 

 fermentative power is dependent on the total dissolved, or more 

 properly speaking suspended, organic mass contained in the yeast 

 juice." ALBERT and BUCHNER (I.) showed, on the contrary, that 

 a constituent precipitated from the yeast juice still possesses fer- 

 mentative power when redissolved. If it be urged, on the other 

 hand, in support of Abeles's plasmal theory that yeast reproduction 

 occurs despite the plasmal poison, Abeles correctly points out that 

 the toxic action on organised ferments depends less on the concen- 

 tration of the poison than on the quantitative ratio between proto- 

 plasm and poison. The careful experiments of BUCHNER and 

 RAPP (VI.) demonstrated that antiseptics which, like toluene and 

 choloroform, do not enter into direct chemical combination with 

 the proteids of yeast juice, will suppress the fermentative action 

 of even large quantities of living yeast cells, and that the carbon 

 dioxide liberated in these circumstances is formed entirely by the 

 amount of stored-up alcoholase left out of consideration by Abeles. 

 The last-named also stated that young cells in particular effect the 

 fermentation of sugar solution (as observed by Wiesner thirty 

 years before) after desiccation and even after exposure to 100 C. 

 for several hours, the cells also retaining their reproductive 

 capacity. Buclmer in his heating experiments invariably found 

 that the yeast cells were killed during the process. MACFADYEN, 

 MORRIS, and ROWLAND (I.), and also WROBLEWSKI (V.), observed 

 that twofold dilution of the yeast juice practically arrested the 

 fermentative power ; and they consider that this behaviour is so 

 greatly opposed to that of enzymes under the same conditions as 

 to constitute a serious objection to the enzyme theory accepted by 

 Buchner. However as mentioned on p. 472 this result was 

 not obtained in the experiments of BUCHNER (VII.) or in the 

 VOL. n : PT. 2 2 H 



