LIFE 



catalysis; Mitscherlich, who discovered the cause of it 

 to be the pecuUar surface - action of many bodies, 

 gave it the name of " contact - action. " It was after- 

 wards discovered that catalysis of this kind is very 

 general, and that a special form of it — fermenta- 

 tion — plays an important part in the life of organ- 

 isms. 



This special form of contact-action which we call 

 fermentation is always effected by catalytic bodies of the 

 albuminoid class, and, in fact, of the group of non- 

 coagulable proteins which are known as peptones. They 

 have — in however small a quantity — the capacity to 

 throw into decomposition large masses of organic matter 

 (in the form of yeast, putrid matter, etc.) without them- 

 selves taking part in the decomposition. When these 

 ferments are free and unorganized they are called 

 enzyma, in opposition to organized ferments (bacteria, 

 yeast-fungi, etc.); though the catalytic action of the 

 latter also consists essentially in the production of 

 enzyma. The recent investigations of Verworn, Hof- 

 meister, Ostwald, etc., have shown that these catalyses 

 play everywhere an important part in the life of the 

 plasm. Many recent chemists and physiologists are of 

 opinion that plasm is a colloid catalysator, and that all 

 the varied activities of life are connected with this funda- 

 mental vital chemistry. Thus Franz Hofmeister (1901) 

 says in his excellent work on The Chemical Organization 

 of the Cell: 



The belief that the agents of the chemical transformation in 

 the cell are catalysators of a colloid nature is in complete accord 

 with other facts that have been directly ascertained. What else 

 are the chemists' ferments but colloid catalysators ? The idea 

 that the ferments are the essential chemical agency in the cell is 

 calculated to meet the difficulty which arises from the smallness 

 of the cell in appreciating its chemical processes. However 

 large we suppose the colloid ferment molecules to be, there is 

 room for millions of them in the smallest cell. 



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