TORREYA 



By Ernest D. Clark 



February, igii 

 Vol. II No. 2 



THE NATURE AND FUNCTION OF THE PLANT 



OXIDASES* LIBRARV 



NEW YOR 



BOTANIC/ 



r^ r L u u • • r,- • . GARDEN 



One oi the most noteworthy characteristics oi hving organisms 



is their ability to carry out many deep-seated chemical changes 

 without the ordinary means of producing such reactions. In 

 other words, the living cell is a laboratory equipped to provide 

 the most varied chemical transformations, yet with none of the 

 relatively crude and violent agents such as high temperatures 

 and strong chemicals which we are forced to use in the test-tube 

 experiments of our man-made laboratories. In no case is this 

 power of the cell more striking than in the oxidative phenomena 

 of plants and animals; the latter especially are continually oxi- 

 dizing and transforming large amounts of material for the main- 

 tenance of their life, and yet these oxidations are accompanied 

 by few of the physical effects associated with oxidation and 

 combustion in daily life or in the laboratory. It is not surprising, 

 then, that the attention of biologists and chemists was early 

 attracted to the investigation of biological oxidations. Beginning 

 with Schoenbein in the fourth decade of the last century, and 

 continuing to the present, numerous have been the theories 

 advanced in regard to these phenomena. However, before pro- 

 ceeding with a discussion of the factors involved in the oxidations 

 of the plant, it is desirable to indicate the means which the cell 



* This paper is based on the author's dissertation entitled " The Plant Oxidases, " 

 which was published last year in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the 

 degree of Ph.D. in Columbia University. 



[No. I, Vol. II, of ToRREYA, Comprising pp. 1-22, was issued 31 Ja 1911.] 



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