CATALYSIS AND THE ENZYMES 



sion that the reaction follows the law of monomole- 

 cular reactions. This theory was by no means 

 generally accepted. French and German scientists 

 of great weight denied that the law of the reaction 

 is simply the law of mass effect, and empiric 

 formulas were calculated which sufficiently agreed 

 with the course of reaction observed. It is to 

 Hudson that we ow r e the proof that O'Sullivan 

 and his collaborator were quite right. The 

 able American chemist found that the chief 

 mistakes in such investigations are caused by the 

 circumstance that grape sugar continually changes 

 its action on polarised light when just split off 

 from cane sugar. This property of glucose is 

 called mutarotation. Hudson very cleverly avoided 

 this source of error by adding some alkali to the 

 solution before the polarimetric determination 

 was made. Thus the state of equilibrium is at once 

 reached in the rotation and the determinations 

 of glucose can be made without any difficulty 

 and with full certainty. In this way it was clearly 

 shown that the inversion of cane-sugar by invertase 

 is just as much a monomolecular reaction as the 

 parallel reaction of cane-sugar inversion by means 

 of acid. Investigations were made on fat-splitting 

 enzymes which showed the same law, but the 

 results of others were different. But another 

 enzyme very clearly follows the law mentioned 

 above. That is the catalase, which splits up 

 hydrogen into water and oxygen. Finally the 

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