May 4, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



701 



upon the basis of the cost of material and 

 double the time employed. 



Austria. 

 Normal Aichungs Commission. — Established 

 at Vienna in 1871, upon the adoption of the 

 metric system by Austria ; to exercise a 

 technical control over the inspection of 

 weights and measures throughout the Em- 

 pire ; to establish regulations regarding in- 

 spection ; to fix the limits of tolerance ; to 

 provide for the custody of the standards ; 

 to construct and verify copies of the stand- 

 ards ; and to equip the local inspection 

 bureaus with copies of standards and meas- 

 uring apparatus ; to verify, for institutions 

 and individuals, standards and measuring 

 apparatus submitted. The commission is 

 subordinate to the Minister of Commerce, 

 and is composed of a director and a num- 

 ber of co-ordinate members. The director 

 is empowered to appoint a suitable force of 

 technical clerical assistants. 

 Total annual expenses, including salaries, 

 equipment, and incidental expenses for 

 the year 1897-98 $46,000 



Bussia. 

 Central Chamber of Weights and Measures. — 

 Established 1878, at St. Petersburg, reor- 

 ganized 1893, to exercise control over all 

 systems of weights and measures in use in 

 the Empire. The work at present is largely 

 preliminary, and comparisons are confined 

 to standards of length, mass, and capacity, 

 but it is the intention of the Government 

 to include the comparison of thermometers, 

 barometers, hydrometers, alcoholometers, 

 etc., and electrical measuring apparatus. 

 Experiments in most of these branches are 

 now being conducted in the laboratories of 

 the chamber,and results of extreme precision 

 are now being obtained, under the minister 

 of finance and the supervision of a director. 

 One hundred and seventy-five thousand 

 dollars was originally appropriated for build- 

 ings and grounds. 



Total annual expenses, including salaries, 

 equipment, and incidental expenses, for 



the year 1897-98 $17,500 



The total amounts annually appropriated 

 by different governments for standardizing 

 purposes are as follows : 



Germany $116,000 



England 62,100 



Austria 46,000 



Eussia 17,500 



United States : 10,400 



A NEW ENZYME OF GENERAL OCCUBBENCE 

 IN OBGANISMS. 



A PRELIMINARY NOTE. 



While occupied with investigations on 

 the enzymes in the tobacco leaf the writer 

 observed that the clear filtered juice of the 

 fresh leaf, although giving strong reaction 

 for oxidase and peroxidase, yields but a 

 very weak reaction with hydrogen peroxid, 

 i. e., develops mere traces of oxygen upon 

 addition of this substance. The unfiltered 

 juice, however, containing in suspension 

 protein matter, chlorophyll bodies, starch 

 granules, etc., yields a very energetic de- 

 velopment of oxygen. This behavior caused 

 the writer to doubt the correctness of the 

 now generally adopted teaching that the 

 power of catalyzing hydrogen peroxid is a 

 property of all enzymes. The known 

 enzymes are soluble in water and although 

 they can be retained in a certain measure 

 by some suspended matters, the difierence 

 of behavior of the unfiltered and filtered 

 juice in the case just mentioned could 

 hardly be so very marked. 



Further tests have shown the writer that 

 the power of catalyzing hydrogen peroxid is 

 found also in manufactured tobacco which 

 had been air-cured, while flue- or fire-cured 

 tobacco was generally indifferent in this re- 

 gard. Air-cured tobacco that was subjected 

 to a subsequent ' sweating in bulk ' shows 

 this power often in a high degree although 

 it is impossible to find the common enzymes. 

 Even oxidase and peroxidase may be de- 

 stroyed in the sweating process, without 

 the loss of this catalytic power. 



