38 Artificial Parthenogenesis and Fertilization 



normal oxidations in the sea-urchin egg. On the contrary, 

 our experiments prove definitely that low concentrations of 

 NaOH have practically no effect upon the rate of oxidations. 

 ; All the facts become intelligible on the assumption that 

 i the increase in oxidations under the influence of high concen- 

 1 trations of NaOH is due to an injurious (a kind of etching ?) 

 ! effect of the latter; this would make it clear why the weak 

 bases, such as NH4OH, do not produce an increase in the rate 

 of oxidations and why low concentrations of NaOH have no 

 ; effect either. The fact that NH4OH enters the egg, while 

 ^ NaOH does not, has probably nothing to do with this result. 

 The energetics of development — the nature of the sub- 

 stances which undergo oxidation, and the way the energy is 

 utilized — has been investigated by TangU and his pupils, by 

 Bohr and Hasselbalch,^ and by Meyerhof.' Since the experi- 

 ments on artificial parthenogenesis are not so intimately con- 

 nected with these experiments as with those on oxidation, we 

 may be pardoned for not discussing them in this book. 



'■Ta.ngl, Pftilger-s Archiv, XCIIl, 327; XCVIII, 490; CIV, 624; CXXI, 437; 

 Biochem. Zeitschr., XLIV, 180, 1912. 



2 Skand. Arch., XIV, 398, 1903. 



3 Meyerhof, Biochem. Zeitschr., XXXV, 246, 1911. 



