12 DIFFERENTIATION AND SPECIFICITY OP STARCHES. 



only such organic substances as have a complementary stereochemic form, it follows, as a 

 corollary, that starch has a corresponding configuration, and that if starch has such a con- 

 formable structure so also must have the enzymes that produce it. In other words, every 

 enzyme formed by any given kind of protoi)lasm is specifically produced to carry f>ut o]:)cr- 

 ations which are directly or intlirect ly essential to the existence of the protoplasm itself, and 

 must ipso facto bear a stereochemic relationship to its mother substance ; therefore, proto- 

 plasm, enzyme, and product have in common the same fundamental stereochemic peculiari- 

 ties. In fact, as the results of these researches go to show, every synthetic organic sub- 

 stance produced by any given Idnd of protoplasm tlirough the agency of its enzymes has a 

 configuration in agreement with that of the protoplasm. If, as must be admitted, corre- 

 sponding kinds of protoplasm in different organisms differ, the corresponding synthetic 

 metabolites will differ; and, conversely, if the latter differ, so must the former. Hemo- 

 globins, which are corresponding substances, have been shown to differ in specific relation- 

 ship to genera and species; and the same extraordinary phenomenon has been brought 

 to light in respect to starches. 



Therefore, from specific stereochemic differences in corresponding substances we are 

 led to corresponding specific differences in protoplasm; from these to differences in vital 

 processes in general; and from these in turn to those which characterize life's processes 

 in all of their enigmatic phases. Indeed, it is far from visionary to conceive that through 

 the advances of science along the lines indicated it will be found that inasmuch as any 

 given organism, for instance, gives rise to a number of enzymes which are the essential 

 instruments by which the necessary vital processes are directly or indirectly carried out, 

 the sum of the configurations of the enzymes represents a corresponding sum or composite 

 of the configurations of the component units of protoplasm. Therefore, each configuration 

 formula would be as specific of the enzyme and the form of protoplasm as is that of glucose; 

 and the sum or composite of these fornud* would be as specific of the organism as the aldo- 

 hexose group of formulse is specific of the aldehexoses. Hence, we may logically assume that 

 the time may come when any given form of protoplasm or any given organism may be expressed 

 by the physiological chemist as specifically in terms of configuration formuloe as it now is de- 

 scribed by the biologist in terms of morphology. 



DIFFERENTIATION OF STEREOISOMERS. 



Our methods for the differentiation of stereoisomers are, on the whole, inexact or 

 even absolutely crude; and in some instances, as in the preparation, separation, and identi- 

 fication by Fischer and his pupils of members of a single group, such as the aldohexoses, 

 the work is tedious and difficult. Obviously no aid is to be expected by centesimal analysis 

 and, as a consequence, deijendence rests upon such procedures as will elicit differences in 

 oj^tical reactions, crystalline form and crystallizability, solubility, melting or gelation point, 

 color, color reactions, digestibility or fermentability, decomposability, toxicity, physio- 

 logical and pharmacological actions, etc. Optically active substances owe their effects on 

 light to either micr-molecular or inifra-molecular arrangements ; that is, in the first place, to 

 the arrangements of the molecules in relation to each other, and, in the second place, to the 

 arrangements of the component molecular units within the molecules themselves. Sodium 

 chlorate, for instance, is optically active when in crystalline form, but inacti^'e when in 

 solution; saccharose is active when in crystalline form, and also when in solution. In the 

 first instance, optical activity is attributable to intermolecular arrangement, the mole- 

 cules being so disposed in relation to one another as to cause asymmetry; in the second 

 instance, activity is due primarily to the configuration or asymmetry of the units of the 

 molecule itself; and activity becomes more marked in both instances as the number of 

 asymmetric molecules of the substance present is greater. 



