THE VITAL PHENOMENA OF BACTERIA. 97 



physical point of view. It now appears clear 

 from chemical considerations that in anaerobi- 

 osis, oxygen, to speak exactly, is not taken out 

 of the molecule. There is simply an atomic re- 

 arrangement by means of which the hydroxyl 

 radical (OH) effects the oxidation of the 

 carbon to carbon dioxide, and either hydro- 

 gen is liberated, or reduction products rich in 

 hydrogen arise, or the hydrogen combines 

 with sulphur to form sulphuretted hydrogen. 

 The instability of the atom grouping is there- 

 fore the real, primary reason for the breaking 

 up, and this process is in certain cases inde- 

 pendent of oxygen and can therefore proceed 

 anaerobiotically. 



The result is similar if a chemical body con- 

 tains within its own structure the elements of 

 formaldehyde and ammonia. Such a body for 

 instance is asparagin, which is the amide of 

 amido-succinic acid, and hence contains nitro- 

 gen which can be utilized in the same way as 

 that of ammonia. Asparagin contains also the 

 raw material of formaldehyde. Asparagin is 

 aspartic acid monamide (C 4 H 8 N 2 O 3 = CH 2 . 

 CONH 2 .CHNH 2 .COOH), in which the hy- 

 droxyl OH in the carboxyl group COOH is 

 replaced by the amido group NH 2 , and an H 

 in the group CH 2 is replaced by NH 2 . A part 

 of the synthetic work therefore is already ac- 



