1905.] On the Germination of Seeds of the Castor Oil Plant. 75 



prepared from a further quantity of the same germinating seeds by- 

 extracting them with a 10 per cent, solution of common salt, and precipi- 

 tating the proteid by addition of alcohol. The precipitate was rapidly 

 collected on a filter, washed and suspended in a little water. 



The 75 c.c. of the extract that had not been boiled was put into a beaker 

 and 5 c.c. of the suspended globulin added ; a similar preparation was made 

 of the 75 c.c. that had been boiled. Both were kept in an incubator at 40° C. 

 for a week. At the end of that time digestion was complete in the imboiled 

 preparation, the globulin having disappeared, leaving a morbid solution. 

 Both were perfectly free from bacteria, the formaldehyde acting extremely 

 efficiently as an antiseptic. The two digestions were then filtered and the 

 filtrates evaporated to dryness. The residues were extracted successively 

 with absolute alcohol and with a mixture of absolute alcohol and ether, each 

 extraction being continued for two days. The first alcoholic extract was 

 evaporated to dryness and the residue again extracted with ether. The two 

 ethereal extracts were subsequently mixed and evaporated to dryness and 

 the residue taken up with a little water. There was considerably more of 

 this residue in the digestion carried out by the unboiled extract of the seeds 

 than in that associated with the other. To each a little platinic chloride was 

 added in watch-glasses, and they were set aside. After 24 hours, in both 

 cases minute crystals had settled to the bottom of the liquid, which were 

 soluble in alcohol of 15 per cent, concentration. From this solution the 

 characteristic yellow octahedra slowly settled out, and these gave the same 

 reactions as those prepared from the extracts of the endosperms. The amount 

 obtained from the digestion by the unboiled extract was much greater than 

 that from the boiled one, though the latter yielded some, attributable no 

 doubt to a certain quantity present in the 75 c.c. of the original extract of 

 the seeds employed. 



The experiment shows, therefore, that the cholin of the lecithin can be 

 prepared from the proteids of the seeds by an enzyme which is developed 

 during germination, and is presumably the enzyme already described as a 

 trypsin. 



The similarity of this enzyme to the trypsin of the pancreas is borne out 

 by the occurrence of tryptophane among the products of its activity both in 

 the plant and in vitro in the laboratory. 



The contribution of material for the synthesis of lecithin does not seem, 

 however, to be the only result of the decomposition of the fat. There is not 

 sufficient phosphorus in the resting seeds to enter into the composition of as 

 much lecithin as the fat would produce. It is, of course, possible that the 

 lecithin may be decomposed during consumption and part of its phosphorus 



