CATALYSIS AND THE ENZYMES 



living matter. We may even say that all the main 

 reactions in the different processes of digestion, 

 in respiration, in the metabolism of carbo- 

 hydrates, fats and proteids are ruled by catalytic 

 influences. No chapter of biochemistry during 

 the last period of development in biology has 

 become of greater significance than the theory 

 of catalysis in living protoplasm, or the knowledge 

 of the Enzymes. 



The word Enzyme has not been used until re- 

 cently. Formerly the expression Ferment was 

 generally applied to signify the cause of the 

 remarkable chemical changes which are so highly 

 characteristic of life. Ferment or Fermentation 

 was directly derived from alcoholic fermentation. 

 The word was intended to signify the generation 

 of gas, of foam bubbles filled with gas, and it should 

 remind us of the resemblance to boiling liquids : 

 ferveo, boil, bubble. Figuratively, fermentation 

 was applied to chemical changes in organic bodies 

 under organic influences. There was no marked 

 distinction made between fermentation and rotting 

 or decomposition. Generally fermentation and 

 putrefaction were spoken of as being the same. 

 The first great discovery in the territory of fermen- 

 tation was made by Theodore Schwann in Belgium 

 and Cagniard Latour in France. It was shown 

 that the deposit consisting of yeast in fermenting 

 sugar solution was of vegetable nature, not a 

 product of fermentation as was formerly often 

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