958 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1017 



Enzyme extracts were made directly from fresh 

 tissue by water, dilute acids, dilute alkalies, dilute 

 salt and glycerine. After several days' standing 

 ■with toluol or oil of mustard as a preservative, the 

 extracts were examined. Lipase, peptase, nuclease, 

 proteinase, peroxidase, arbutinase, salolase, dex- 

 trinase, were found to be present. Lipase gave ac- 

 tivity on the following substances in the following 

 order. Triacetin, monobutyrin, ethyl butyrate, 

 olive oil, kefalin, lecithin. Sodium glycocholate, 

 saponin sodium phosphate, were activators for 

 lipase. The various divisions of the brain con- 

 tained the same enzymes, but in different amounts. 

 The cerebrum extract was several times as active 

 as that of the medulla. Gray matter is much more 

 active than white matter. 



Specificity in the Action of Drugs on Brain and 

 Beart Fosfatids: C. C. MacAethue and G. H. 

 Caldweli.. 



If caffein, cocain, strychnin and o her brain 

 drugs show their specificity by some particular ef- 

 fect on brain kefalin and brain lecithin, these 

 drugs ought to change the very sensitive calcium 

 chloride precipitation limit of the fosfatid solu- 

 tion. Many series of determinations gave no such 

 result. Digitalis strofanthin (etc.) should effect 

 heart lecithin and heart cuorin solutions in a simi- 

 lar way. No consistent results of this kind were 

 noticed. These results suggest that the fosfatids, 

 in the condition isolated, are not concerned either 

 through their solubilities, through changes in the 

 state of aggregation, or through chemical combina- 

 tion in drug action. Probably these drugs effect 

 more complex combinations or more labile groups 

 of substances than those we isolate. 



Seduction Processes in Plant and Soil: M. X. 



Sullivan. 



Plant roots possess the power to reduce am- 

 monium molybdate to the blue oxide MOsOj and to 

 reduce a mixture of para-nitroso-dimethyl aniline 

 and alpha naphthol to naphthol blue. The first re- 

 duction is favored by a slightly acid medium and 

 occurs .predominantly within the parenchyme cells 

 just back of the root tip. It is probably due to 

 nonenzymotie products. The second reduction is 

 not particularly localized,' and is retarded by dilute 

 acids, favored by dilute alkalies. Certain solids 

 likewise have the power to form naphthol blue from 

 the mixture of para-nitroso-dimethyl aniline and 

 alpha naphthol. Soils possessing this power do not 

 oxidize easily oxidizable substances such as aloin. 

 Conversely, as far as investigated, soils acting on 

 aloin do not form naphthol blue. 



The Passage of Nucleic Acid from Plant to Me- 

 dium: M. X. Sullivan. 



In the water in which wheat had grown for six- 

 teen days, with change of water every two days, 

 material was found which was soluble in dilute 

 alkali, precipitated by dilute acids and alcohol, 

 contained phosphorus, gave the pentose reactions 

 and on hydrolysis with dilute acid gave a reducing 

 sugar and xanthine bases such as guanine, deter- 

 mined by color reaction and formation of the hy- 

 drochloride, and adenine, determined by color re- 

 action. The material was judged to be nucleic 

 acid. 



Chemical Studies upon the Genus Zygadenus: C. L. 



Alsbeeg. 



A number of species of plants of the genus 

 Zygadenus are regarded as poisonous. Great con- 

 fusion from the toxicological standpoint has ex- 

 isted in this genus because the nomenclature of 

 this genus has not always been clearly understood. 

 Thus the alkaloids of the "veratrine" group have 

 been misnamed. It is not found at all from spe- 

 cies of the genus Veratrum. Veratrum contains 

 no veratrine, but, as is now well known, is a mix- 

 ture of quite different alkaloids. The alkaloids of 

 the "veratrine" group are, as is generally known, 

 obtained from sabodilla seeds. These are the 

 seeds of a species of Zygadenus. Hunt was the 

 first to show that the Zygadenus Venenosus of the 

 western United States contains the same or simi- 

 lar alkaloids. Slade confirmed this and Heyl and 

 his collaborators obtained a crystalline alkaloid, 

 apparently belonging to this group, from Z. in- 

 termedius. In the investigation herein reported, 

 similar alkaloids were obtained in crystalline form 

 from Z. Venenosus, Z. elegans and Z. coloradensis, 

 all of them very toxic and with similar pharmaco- 

 logical action. Prom a member of a closely re- 

 lated genus, Amianthium musccetoxicum,, a similar 

 active principle was obtained in an impure state. 

 Apparently many of the species of this group of 

 lilies contain "veratrine" alkaloids or alkaloids 

 related to it. 



Nephelometry in the Study of Nucleases: Philip 

 Adolph Kobee and Saea S. Graves. 

 The nephelometer can be used for the study of 

 nucleases, if an acid egg albumin solution is used 

 as a precipitant. This reagent will reveal the 

 presence of one part of yeast nuclei acid in 1,000,- 

 000 parts of water, and in practical work is not 

 affected by most substances found in physiological 

 work. Chaeles L. Paesons, 



Secretary 



