CHAPTER IV. 



Active Albumen as reserve-material in plants. 



The facts described in the last chapter lead us immediately 

 to the questions : Do the active proteids also exist as such, i. e. 

 in the non-organised condition, in plantcells ? If so, are they just 

 as labil as in the organised state, i. e. as living protoplasm? 

 Is it possible to obtain directly the chemical reactions upon 

 the aldehydnature of those compounds ? — To these questions 

 Dr. Thomas Bokorny and myself have devoted considerable time 

 and attention and our investigations^ have shown : i. That 

 there exists in many plants, apparently in a state of solution a 

 certain protein-substance quite different from ordinary proteids ; 

 2. That this substance is capable of giving certain reactions, of 

 which the living protoplasm on account of its great lability is 

 incapable, and which neither dead protoplasm nor the known 

 soluble proteids show ; 3. That this substance is used up 

 during the growth and multiplication of cells, and that it plays 

 therefore the role of a reserve-material. 



The reader will be made acquainted in the following lines 

 with the principal observations relating to this discovery. 2) — 

 Many vegetable objects, algae as well as parts of higher deve- 

 loped plants, show under the influence of weak bases like coffe'in 

 (0,1-0,5%) or antipyrin (best in 0,5% solutions) a remarkable 

 phenomenon, consisting in the appearance of a large number 

 of minute transparent colorless globules, 3) that gradually unite 



1) Of our publications I mention here merely: 



O. Loew and Th. Bokorny : Die chemische Kraftquelle im lebenden Pro- 

 toplasma, Munich 1882. — 



Botan. Centralbl. 1889, and 1893.— Biol. Centralbl. Vol 11.— 

 Flora i8g2. p. 117. — 



Dr. Th. Bokorny, now professor at the Military Academy in Munich, publish- 

 ed contributions in : 



Pringshcims Jahrb. Vol 19. and Vol. 20. Pfliig. Arch. Vol. 45 and Vol. 50. 



2) I describe here the facts in the order, in which it appears most convenient 

 for the reader to conceive. I neither enter therefore upon a sketch of the develop- 

 ment of our investigations, nor upon a relation of the discussions brought on by 

 our publications. Suffice it to say that the objections have been refuted as wholly 

 unfounded. 



3) Coffein acts still in higher dilutions than antipyrin. 



