450 REPORT— 1900. 



haemoglobin, which is derived from chromatin, or, as Ascoli ^ claims, to the 

 phosphorus as a polymetaphosphate of iron. For this purpose quantities 

 of iron holding nuclein, prepared from lamb's testicles, were subjected to 

 the action of water at 160° to 170^ C, under pressure for four to eight 

 hours. This brings about a decomposition of the nuclein, setting free the 

 metaphosphoric acid as the ortho acid. It was found that in the first 

 four to six hours nearly all the phosphorus of the compound appears in 

 solution as ortho-phosphoric acid, with traces of iron, the rest of the iron 

 appearing to be still in organic combination in other decomposition 

 products either in solution or undissolved. If the iron were combined 

 with the meta-phosphoric acid it ought to appear as ferric phosphate, 

 which is soluble in the presence of ortho-phosphoric acid. In the absence 

 of this result it must, therefore, be held that the iron is directly associated 

 in the nuclein molecule with some other element, probably carbon. 



3. On the Localisation of Oxidising Enzijmes in the Cell. — For this pur- 

 pose vmicellular algiv, and more particularly Sjyirogyra, were used. The 

 tests for these enzymes ai'O not sufficiently delicate to enable one to de- 

 tect their distribution micro-chemically, but it was found that on subject- 

 ng masses of the living Spirogyra threads washed -with distilled water 

 to various degrees of pressure in a specially niade hydraulic \iVQSs one 

 obtained solutions of the various ferments the position of each of which 

 in the cell is approximately determinable by the jaressure used. For ex- 

 ample, with an initial low pressure the fluid or solution expressed was 

 largely, if not wholly, from the spaces in the cell surrounding the chro- 

 matophore and the stellate cytoplasmic mass which contains the nucleus, 

 while with a considerably greater pressure one obtains cytoplasmic and 

 nuclear fluids in a second solution, and with the maximum pressui'e the 

 cytoplasmic and nuclear structures, but not the chromatophore, are disin- 

 tegrated to a certain extent and pass into the fluid expressed as suspended 

 material, which, if kept in this condition for three or four days, partially 

 dissolves. This forms the thiixl solution. In testing for the occurrence 

 of oxidising enzymes in these solutions various j-eadily oxidisable reagents 

 were used as indicators, but the one which gave results most to be relied 

 upon was guaiacum in absolute alcohol, a drop of which added to a solu- 

 tion of an oxidising enzyme results in the production of a blue solution in 

 from a few minutes to half an hour. It was found that an oxidase is 

 present in solution No. 1 in considerable quantities, but sparingly in No. 

 2, and it is not demonstrable in No. 3. In the first solution an aero- 

 oxidasc occurs in small quantities, that is, an oxidase which is active 

 only in contact with air. Traces of an aiiro-oxidase were found in the 

 second solution, but ncjt in that obtained with the maximum pressure. 

 In the last, however, was found abundant evidence of the presence of a 

 peroxidase, that is, of an oxidase which renders guaiacum solutions 

 (emulsions) blue only in the presence of liydrogen peroxide. This same 

 solution also was found to contain a catalase (Loew), that is, a ferment 

 which liberates oxygen from hydrogen peroxide, but which does not 

 oxidise guaiacum emulsions. From such experiments it would appear 

 that the peroxidase and catalase are very intimately associated with the 

 protoplasmic and nuclear structures of the cell while the oxidase and 

 aero-oxidase are in media external to the protoplasm. It is important 

 to note that the chromatophore does not yield an oxidising ferment or 

 catalase. 



' Zeittfio' PhyHiol. Chemic, vol. xxviii p. 426. 



