CHEMICAL PHENOMENA IN LIFE 



of yeast, there are formed grape sugar and a com- 

 pound which is a combination of glucose and the 

 nitrile of amygdalic acid. Concentrated solutions 

 of glucose and the nitrilc-glucoside brought 

 together with emulsin form in abundance 

 amygdalin, the original glucosid of almonds, as 

 O. Emmerling has shown. Undoubtedly syn- 

 thetic effects were further observed, when lipase, 

 the fat-decomposing enzyme, acted on a con- 

 centrated mixture of glycerine and fatty acids. 

 Finally some synthetic effects are known from 

 the enzyme which act on proteids. All these ex- 

 periences render it very probable that the organic 

 synthesis in cells is performed and regulated by 

 enzymes, and we can no longer consider the 

 formerly mysterious synthesis of organic com- 

 pounds in life as a problem which is not accessible 

 to chemical experimental investigation. 



No less important prospects lie disclosed at 

 present relative to the part of enzymes in the 

 process of respiration. It was Lavoisier who 

 clearly recognised that the respiration of animals 

 was a process analogous to inorganic combustion. 

 About 1800 Saussure, of Geneva, during his 

 memorable investigations into plant nutrition 

 discovered the respiration of plants. Since that 

 time no doubt has existed that the fundamental 

 laws of the process of respiration are the same 

 in both the plant and the animal kingdom. It is 

 true that in plants and in the lower animals one 

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