THE ENERGY OF THE LIVING PROTOPLASM. 



167 



ed with chemical actions caused by waves of heat, light/ 1 ' elect- 

 ricity, and even by the waves of sound in some instances (explo- 

 sion of iodide of nitrogen), but concerning the related phenomenon 

 of chemical action set up by oscillating motion of the labile 

 (unstable) position of atoms, our knowledge is but very scanty. 

 Such processes are of the kind termed katalytic actions. (2) This 

 expression was first used by Berzelius to designate chemical 

 phenomena apparently caused by mere contact with a certain 

 substance. The unsatisfactory definition of Bcrzelius, and the 

 denomination of certain processes as katalytic which in reality 

 were not such at all, implied a misunderstanding, and when Licbig 

 ridiculed the idea of Berzelius, nobody seemed to dare any more 

 to speak of this interesting group of phenomena and to explain 

 satisfactorily, for example, the wonderful activity of platinum 

 black.< 3 > 



Katalytic actions exist, however, but the}' are not the result 

 of a mere contact, as Berzelius believed, but of a certain amount 

 of energy being conveyed, whereby the katalyser remains 

 entirely intact. If, however, the apparently katalytically acting 

 substance undergoes intermediary chemical changes with final 

 regeneration, the process is not a katalytic one. Such pseudo- 

 katalytic actions are, for example, the role of nitric oxide in the 

 manufacture of sulphuric acid, that of cobaltic oxide in the 

 development of oxygen from chloride of lime, the action of 



(1) The action of light may consist in bringing about (a) combinations, as that 

 between chlorine and hydrogen, or (b) disruptions ; bisulphide of carbon is split into 

 sulphur and a lower sulphide (O. Locw); aqueous sulphurous acid is split into sulphur 

 and sulphuric acid (O. Loew) ; nitric acid into oxygen and nitrous acid ; silver salts 

 are reduced to metal ; (c) reductions of organic compounds : in alcoholic solution 

 quinone is changed into hydroquinone, nitrobenzene into aniline (Ciamician and 

 Silbcr), benzil into benzil-benzoin, phenanthrene-quinone into phenanthrene-hydro- 

 quinone, a portion of the alcohol present being converted into aldehyde ; (<1) poly- 

 merisation and condensation ; thymoquinone, anethol, phenyl-naphtoquinone are 

 polymerised; monobromacetylene is converted into tribrombenzene, propargylic acid 

 into trimesic acid (Ber. D. Chem. Ges. 27, 958). 



(2) The great resemblance of the chemical activity of living cells to katalytic 

 actions was recognised more than thirty years ago by the great physiologist, C. Ludwig. 

 Also C. Lehmann in his " Lehrb. d. physiolog, Chem.," and, later on, Traubc and 

 Stohmann expressed themselves in the same sense. But explanation of this katalytic 

 action was wanting. 



(3) Even now-a-days, isolated voices are raised in the sense of Licbig. See 

 //. Maclcod's lecture at the meeting of the British Assoc. in Edinburgh 1892. 



