542 Enzyme Action, Ionic-Dissociation, and Vital Change, 



molecules prior to the closure of the oxide ring. The formation in 

 this manner of starch rather than of the far simpler glucose or maltose 

 might be conditioned by the production at protoplasmic surfaces in 

 close contiguity and in suitable orientation of the necessary number of 

 glucose or it may be maltose elements to form the starch molecule. 



The origin of albuminoids may be regarded from a similar point of 

 view ; and if carbohydrate elements were associated with the proto- 

 plasmic complex, they might serve to determine the formation of 

 compatible enzymes in the same way that the enzyme elements may 

 be supposed to determine the formation of compatible carbohydrates.* 

 In short, the protoplasmic complex may he regarded as built up of a series 

 of associated templates which serve as patterns to determine change in the 

 various directions necessary for the maintenance of vital processes and of 

 growth. 



There are many directions in which such a principle can be applied 

 so as to form the basis of experimental inquiry. Its bearing on the 

 formation of anti-toxins, for example, is obvious ; and it may be worth 

 while to ascertain, if possible, whether in cases of acute diabetes the 

 failure of the organism to utilise glucose may not be the consequence 

 of the disappearance of the maltase element from the protoplasm of 

 the organs which ordinarily condition its utilisation. 



* This assumption almost necessarily involves the conclusion that a carbo- 

 hydrate in some way enters into the composition of the sucroclastic enzyme. From 

 this point of view, it is perhaps significant that glucosamine is obtainable from 

 many albuminoids especially as mucin from human saliva is said to afford 

 30 per cent, of its 'weight of this substance. The production of levulinic acid 

 from yeast nuclein is equally noteworthy. But if the activity, for example, of the 

 amyloclastic enzyme should prove to be referable to the presence of a carbohydrate 

 component and this be glucosamine, it will follow that the influence is exerted by 

 a compound in some measure similar to the carbohydrate in configuration — not by 

 one opposed to it in symmetry. — \_Note added May 28, 1904-.] 



