TRANSACTIONS 



OF THK 



^o\)n ^cotutii institute of ,§cicnce, 



SH]SSIONr OF 1913-1914. 



On the Existence of a Reducing Endo-Enzyme in Animal 

 Tissues.— By D. Eraser Harris, M. B., C. M., M. D., 



B. Sc, (Lond.); D. Sc, (Birm.); F. R. S. E., Profts^or 

 of Physiology and Histology in the Dalhousie University, 

 Halifax, Nova Scotia. 



(Read 10 November 1913) 



I. Historical. 



It has for many years been recognized that both living 

 and "surviving" animal tissues possess deoxidizing or re- 

 ducing powers. 



Hoppe-Seyler(^)in 1883 was the first to draw attention 

 to the presence of powerful reducing processes in living 

 tissues. He suggested that, through reduction, molecular 

 oxygen was rendered active by conversion into nascent 

 oxygen and thus enabled to oxidize certain constituents of 

 tissues after the manner in which hydrogen-saturated pal- 

 ladium-foil can oxidize indigo. 



Paul EhrIich(2)two years later published his researches 

 on the reducing powers of tissues during life and at the 

 moment of death. 



Proc. & Teans. N. S. Inst. Scr , Vol, XIII. Trans. 18. 



(259) 



