Catalase Content of Tissues. 



129 



7i (1531) 



Comparison of the catalase content of the tissues of the mother 

 and of the offspring. 



By W. E. BURGE (by invitation). 



[From the Physiological Laboratory of the University of Illinois.] 



Hasselbalch 1 found that oxidation or metabolism is very 

 low in the infant during the first month of life, and Magnus-Levy 

 and Falk 2 that it is high during childhood. As a result of the 

 work of these three observers and of Bailey and Murlin 3 , 

 Murlin and Hoobler 4 , Howland 5 , Benedict and Talbot 6 , Benedict, 

 Emmes, Roth and Smith 7 , Palmer, Means, and Gamble 8 , and 

 others, it is now considered that oxidation or metabolism is low 

 during the first month of life, high during childhood, and low after 

 the onset of old age. Warburg 9 found that during the process 

 of fertilization, oxidation was greatly increased in the sea-urchin 

 egg. It is also known that oxidation is greatly increased in the 

 greening of tubers and the germinating of grain. The present 

 work is an attempt to find an explanation for the variation in the 

 intensity of oxidation under the conditions named. 



Since we 10 had found that whatever increased oxidation in 

 the body, the ingestion of food, for example, produded an increase 

 in catalase, an enzyme possessing the property of liberating oxygen 

 from hydrogen peroxide, by stimulating the alimentary glands, 

 particularly the liver, to an increased output of this enzyme, and 

 that whatever decreased oxidation, narcotics for example, dimin- 

 ished catalase by decreasing its output from the liver and by 

 direct destruction, we naturally turned to catalase for an expla- 



1 Hasselbach, Bibliotek for laeger, Copenhagen, 1904, 8, 219. 



2 Magnus-Levy and Falk, Arch.f. Anat. u. Physiol., 1899, Suppl. 315. 



3 Bailey and Murlin, Am. Jour. Obst., 1915, lxxi, 1. 



4 Murlin and Hoobler, Am. Jour. Dis. Child., 1915, ix, 81. 

 6 Howland, Ztschr. f. physiol. Chem., 1911, lxxiv, 1. 



6 Benedict and Talbot, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Pub. 201, 1914. 

 Am. Jour. Dis. Child., 1914, viii, 1. 



7 Benedict, Emmes, Roth and Smith, Jour. Biol. Chem., 1914, xviii, 139. 



8 Palmer, Means and Gamble, Jour. Biol. Chem., 1914, xix, 239. 

 9 0. Warburg, Zeitschr.f. physiol. Chem., 1908. lvii, 6, 



10 Burge, Am. Jour. Physiol., 1918; xlv, 4, 1918; xlvii, 1, 1918. xlvii, 3, 



