CHEMICAL PHENOMENA IN LIFE 



neutrally. Most probably even the acid properties 

 of peat and of Humic Acids of the soil can be 

 attributed to colloidal elective adsorption. The 

 negatively electric colloids of the peat moss 

 retain, as Baumann and Gully have lately shown, 

 chiefly the basic ions of the dissolved salts, and this 

 adsorptive election must lead to reactions of acid 

 in the soil extract. It can easily be demonstrated 

 that the citrate and the tartrate are most adsorbed 

 and productive more of the effect of an acid than 

 other salts of the same alkaline metal. I cannot 

 but suppose that the taking up of dissolved salts 

 by living cells is essentially founded upon pheno- 

 mena of adsorption. This opinion has been con- 

 firmed by the chemical analysis of peat moss by 

 Baumann and Gully. It was found that the 

 quantities of the basic mineral constituents of the 

 moss-ash are almost the same as are adsorbed 

 by the plant from the soil. Long ago agricultural 

 chemists had stated that the constitution of the 

 ash of plants which grow upon the same territory 

 may widely differ. This elective assimilation of 

 soil constituents may be now explained to a 

 great extent by the adsorptive qualities of the 

 colloids of the living cells. 



In summing up we may say that the super- 

 ficial layer of cell protoplasm, called hyaloplasm, 

 may be considered to be a film of more solid con- 

 stitution which we call the plasmatic membrane. 

 This membrane regulates the change of substances 

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