ASPARAGIN: FATS. 347 



presence in numerous cases where none at all was to be detected under normal con- 

 ditions of vegetation. It is still to be mentioned that the formation of asparagin 

 takes place also in young flower-stalks and buds, young fruits, and growing seeds ; on 

 the ripening of the seed, however, it disappears in the reservoirs of reserve-materials. 



It is worthy of remark that Borodin succeeded in demonstrating the formation 

 of asparagin in all cases where he investigated the growing parts of plants for that 

 purpose. Unfortunately, there is only a single observation on a Moss : the question 

 still remains to be answered also how the matter stands with respect to Algae and 

 Fungi. 



Finally are to be mentioned the fats. I showed, so long ago as 1858, that in 

 the germination of seeds containing fat a transference of the fatty oils from the 

 cotyledons, or from the endosperm into the growing parts of the seedling, appears 

 to take place ; and a few years later this was confirmed by chemical analyses 

 by Peters ^. When the roots and shoot-axes of the seedlings of Ricinus, Gourd, and 

 Almond have already grown to a considerable size, we find in their parenchyma for 

 some time longer considerable quantities of fat, which have passed in from the coty- 

 ledons, or the endosperm, and only disappear later in metabolism. It thus appears 

 that the fats can pass through the closed tissue-cells as such ; though of course 

 the greater part of them is transformed into starch and sugar for transport and use. 

 Similar phenomena with respect to fats occur moreover in the animal body, where 

 the fats entering into the stomach are in the first place emulsified by the secretion from 

 the pancreas, that is, they become converted into exceedingly fine drops and then 

 saponified. This again is brought about by a special ferment. According to 

 Schützenberger, a similar ferment actually exists also in fatty seeds : if such seeds 

 are ground up in water, an emulsion is produced in which, as he says, glycerine 

 and free fatty acids appear forthwith. According to this, however, the presence 

 of fats in the seedling can only be explained by assuming that glycerine and fatty 

 acids travel from cell to cell, and are continually becoming re-united for the forma- 

 tion of fat, a process moreover which presents a certain similarity with the move- 

 ments of transitory starch. For starch also is found at places in the tissue 

 where it has neither been originally produced nor is employed, and thus in a con- 

 dition of translocation towards the places where it is made use of; in petioles and 

 the older internodes of growing plants, this fine-grained transitory starch is to be 

 found very generally. It is obvious that it does not pass as such through the closed 

 cell-walls, and its translocation is only intelligible if we assume that the small starch- 

 granules in one cell become dissolved and the solution penetrates into the next cell, 

 there to become separated again as granules by the starch-forming corpuscles of 

 Schimper, the process being repeated from cell to cell. 



As a rule, the remarkable decompositions of organic compounds brought about by 

 the Ferment-fungi (organised ferments) have also been regarded hitherto as ferment- 

 actions, it being assumed that in these Fungi — Yeast, Bacteria, INIould-fungi, etc. — 

 peculiar substances belonging to the category of ferments are produced, which act 

 upon the saccharine or proteinaceous media as do the above-named splitting fer- 

 ments. Thus, for example, grape-sugar is broken up by the Yeast- fungus into 



On the translocation of fats, cf. my ' Handbuch der Exp.-phys.' (1865, p. 304). 



