The Origin of Life 27 



was added to the products of the hydrolysis of ethyl- 

 butyrate, ethyl alcohol, and butyric acid by the same 

 enzyme.' Taylor^ obtained the synthesis of a slight 

 amount of triolein 



by the addition of the dried fat-free residue of the castor 

 bean to a mixture of oleinic acid and glycerine. . . . No 

 synthesis occurred with acetic, butyric, palmitic, and 

 stearic acids with glycerine, mannite, and dulcite, and the 

 experiments with the last two alcohols and oleinic acid 

 likewise yielded no synthesis. 



This suggests possibly a specific action of the enzyme. 

 If this slight reversible action had any biological signi- 

 ficance (which might be possible, since in the organism 

 secondary favourable conditions might be at work 

 which are lacking in vitro) there should be a parallelism 

 between masses of lipase in different kinds of tissues and 

 fat synthesis. Loevenhart indicated that this might 

 be a fact, but a more extensive investigation by H. C. 

 Bradley has made this very dubious. ^ 



Very little is known concerning the reversible action 

 of the hydrolytic protein enzymes. A. E. Taylor 

 digested protamine sulphate with trypsin and found 

 that after adding trypsin to the products of digestion 

 a precipitate was formed after long standing; and we 



^ ICastle, J. H., and Loevenhart, A. S., Am. Chem. Jour., 1900, xxiv., 



491. 



'Taylor, A. E., Univ. Cal. Pub., 1904, Pathology, {., 33; Jour. Biol. 

 Chem., 1906, ii., 87. 



3 Bradley, H. C, Jour. Biol. Chem., 1913, xiii., 407. 



