40 ARTIFICIAL PARTHENOGENESIS AND FERTILIZATION 
The many researches of Hoyer next aimed at ascertaining 
what was the nature of the acid which is formed in the seed 
itself and conditions the sudden increase in the hydrolysis 
of the oil in the germinating seed. It is found to depend 
mainly upon lactic and carbonic acids, together with a relatively 
small amount of acetic and formic acids. There occur there- 
fore two fundamental processes in the conversion of the oil in 
germination. One process is the fermentative production of 
acids: lactic, carbonic, acetic, and formic; the second process, 
which depends upon the first, is the ‘‘activation”’ of the lipolytic 
enzyme through the acid produced in the seed. 
Investigations with the acids produced in the seed itself 
elicited the fact that these acids are able to produce the fat- 
splitting effect in the castor bean. One fact, which is of bio- 
logical importance, may be mentioned here. If Hoyer chose 
for his investigation a castor bean that had hardly begun to 
germinate, and cut it in half (after washing it), it appeared that 
the oil-splitting enzyme had a weaker effect in the half of the 
seed which contained the embryo than in the half separated 
from the embryo. In well germinated seeds there was prac- 
tically no more ferment present. “‘In the life history of the 
castor bean, the ferment becomes inoperative after the per- 
formance of its fat-splitting function in the same proportion 
as the castor oil is prepared for the growth of the embryo.’ 
These investigations give us an idea of the complicated 
character of the processes in the development of the embryo. 
The taking-up of water leads to a process of hydrolysis in the 
seed, of which the end-products are certain acids—lactie and 
carbonic. These acids serve, according to Hoyer’s description, 
for the “activation” of the lipase contained in the castor 
bean. As in all analyses of life phenomena, we are here too 
dealing with a catenary series of reactions. It seems that in the 
sea-urchin S. purpuratus also a sudden increase in the acid 
1 Hoyer, Ber. d. deutsch. chem. Ges., XX XVII, 1436, 1904. 
