36 
water, and after transferring into an Erlenmeyer flask, 5 ec. hydro- 
gen peroxid were added (rendered previously slightly alkaline). The 
time necessary to produce 20 cc. and 40 cc. oxygen was then noted. 
The results were: 
With —— Ww ith upper With lumi- 
Oxygen. abdomen. | nous parts. 
Minutes. | Minutes. | Minutes. 
20 CC paces ae eee ese | ce 3 | i 
40;rC C2 ei. sesso sos | oF | Gy ds | 
| | | 
A small beetle of about the size of the head of the lightning beetle 
produced 40 ce. oxygen in six and one-fourth minutes, while a medium- 
sized Carabus, 0.618 gram in weight, after being crushed with 20 
ec. water, produced, upon the gradual addition of 20 cc. hydrogen 
peroxid, 168 ce. oxygen in four minutes, corresponding to the decom- 
position of nearly 0.5 gram pure anhydrous hydrogen peroxid. _ 
The extracts’ of animal organs yield, on saturation with ammonium 
sulphate, precipitates which, after drying at the ordinary temperature, 
are only partly soluble again in water. However, not only the soluble 
portion, but also that which has become insoluble, shows catalytic 
power. ‘Two-tenths of a gram of the insoluble part of a crude cata- 
lase preparation from calf’s spleen, when suspended in 20 cc. water, 
yielded, upon addition of 5 cc. hydrogen peroxid, 29.2 ec. oxygen in 
twenty minutes. Hence this product contains relatively little of the. 
active principle. An aqueous extract of beef muscles has a high 
degree of catalytic power, and even after it is heated for one moment 
to 62° C. and the coagulated albumen is removed the clear filtrate has 
still a powerful action on hydrogen peroxid, while the coagulum itself 
gives merely a faint trace of action, showing that it absorbed only 
traces of catalase. Finely chopped beef extracted for fifteen minutes 
with twice its weight of water at 40° C. yielded a reddish filtrate of 
weak acid reaction, of which 20 ce. decomposed 5 cc. of a 3 per cent 
hydrogen peroxid preparation almost completely in one minute. 
When rendered slightly alkaline the same amount of filtrate produced, 
upon addition of 20 ec. hydrogen peroxid, fully 163 cc. oxygen gas in 
but two minutes. 
The presence of a-catalase as well as /-catalase in the pancreatic 
gland becomes probable from the fact that the pulp shows considerable 
catalytic power even after repeated extraction with chloroform water. 
A 1 per cent solution of sodium carbonate at the ordinary temperature, 
however, extracts the insoluble portion of catalase but slowly, and 
besides transforms a part of it into -catalase by its prolonged influ- 
ence. The hen’s egg is an object poor in catalase. Ten cc. of the 
white of an egg, upon mixture with 5 cc. hydrogen peroxid, yielded 
1 These extracts were prepared by the digestion of the finely chopped organs with 
water at 40° to 50° C. for a short time and filtering. 
