SCIENCE 



Friday, JIat 3. 1918 



CONTENTS 

 A Chemical Study of Enzyme Action: Db. K. 

 George Falk 423 



The Conservation of Wheat: Dr. Harst 

 Snydee 429 



Scientific Bvents: — 



Theodore CaXdviell Janeway; Medical Ter- 

 minology; Lectures on Public Bealth; Be- 

 search Grants of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science; The Na- 

 tional Academy of Sciences 433 



Scientific Notes and News 436 



University and Educational Neivs 438 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Note on a Beverse Concentration Cell: 

 Professor Fernando Sanford. Bering's 

 Contributions to Physiological Optics: Dr. 

 Carl Hering. Seform of the World's 

 Calendar: T. G. Dabxet 438 



Scientific Books: — 



Stejneger and Barbour's ChecJc-list of North 

 American Amphibians: Professor Alex- 

 ander G. RUTHVEN 440 



Special Articles: — 

 Identity of Atomic Weight among Different 

 Elements: Dr. Gerald L. Wekdt 442 



The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science: — 



Minutes of the Committee on Policy: De. L. 

 O. Howard. Section M — Agriculture: Dr. 

 E. W. Allen 443 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 Hudson. N. Y. 



A CHEMICAL STUDY OF ENZYME 

 ACTIONi 



In making up the list of papers to be 

 presented at this meeting to-day, it was 

 stated that the intention was to "get at the 

 fundamental things in enzyme activity." 

 Since the chemical nature of an enzyme is 

 as fundamental for the understanding of 

 an enzyme action as any other factor, I 

 shall present some results obtained during 

 the last six years bearing on this question." 

 It will not be necessary to give a definition 

 of enzymes here or to present a classifica- 

 tion of enzyme actions. This has been done 

 repeatedlj- and it would appear that at pres- 

 ent nothing essential can be added in this re- 

 spect. The question will be taken up as a 

 chemical problem. Certain definite chem- 

 ical changes may be accelerated under defi- 

 nite conditions; certain products obtained 

 from living organisms have the property of 

 accelerating these changes; these accelera- 

 tions can be controlled within limits by 

 altering the conditions. The problem in its 

 simplest terms is the study of the chemical 

 nature of these products of animal or plant 

 origin which accelerate the changes. At 

 the same time, influences physical in nature, 

 such as the solvent and the colloidal prop- 

 erties of the materials must not be lost sight 

 of, as they undoubtedly play a part in 

 modifying the velocities of the reactions. 



1 Presented at the meeting on "Enzymes and 

 their Behavior" before the Division of Biological 

 Chemistry, American Chemical Society, Boston, 

 September 12, 1917. 



2 The work was published in a series of papers 

 in J. Am. Chem. Soc, 1912-15, and in Proc. Nat. 

 Acad. Set., 1, 136 (1915), 2, 557 (1916); J. Biol. 

 Chem., 31, 97 (1917). 



