100 OTTO GLASER. 



On this basis it is possible to explain the most puzzling feature 

 of oligodynamic action. It is not that copper, silver, gold, or any- 

 other metals have this or that effect, but that infinitesimal amounts 

 give results apparently out of all proportion to the quantities 

 involved. 



In the case of copper, for example, I imagine the oligodynamic 

 effect as due to the inactivation of that fraction of the enzyme or 

 co-enzyme which was not inactivated by the copper present in the 

 first place. Where the oligodynamic effect is produced by silver 

 or some other metal, the total of inactivated enzyme or co-enzyme 

 would be composed of two fractions — the one inactivated by cop- 

 per, the other by silver. 



This view of the case has stoichipmetrical implications which 

 further work may or may not justify. But however this may turn 

 out, the presence and effect of copper in preparations of normal 

 enzymes calls urgently for further study. 



Quite apart from the biochemical questions that suggest them- 

 selves at once, the discovery carries with it problems of wide bio- 

 logical significance. Is the liability to inactivation compensated by 

 the production of larger quantities of the enzymes? Or does 

 compensation come about by variety and differential susceptibili- 

 ties ? Why the tremendous number of enzymes when, aside from 

 a few cases of molecular rearrangement, the only radical processes 

 we have to deal with are the reversible oxidations and hydrolyses ? 



4. Copper and Fertilization. 



Probably most of the copper present in the Arbacia egg is incor- 

 porated in the pigment whose elimination discolors the sea-water. 

 As I have shown ('14), the rate of pigment secretion is increased 

 50 per cent, while the eggs are undergoing fertilization. This 

 explains why the copper content of fertilized eggs is so much 

 lower than that of unfertilized. My values for the copper content 

 indicate in fertilized eggs an order of magnitude quite different 

 from that in ripe eggs and essentially the same as that of the 

 immature ovarian ovum. Tentatively, therefore, one may hazard 

 that, among other things, fertilization restores the copper content 

 to an order of magnitude characteristic of the unripe egg. 



In the absence of more accurate data it is premature to discuss 



