4O4 LABILITY AND ENERGY IN RELATION TO PROTOPLASM. 



non essential is the supposed relative number of the active 

 groups (twelve for Licberkuehn 's formula), as unforeseen atomic 

 migrations may occur. Compounds with more than two aldehyde 

 groups' 1 ' have not thus far been prepared but this fact in itself 

 gives no ground to infer that molecules with more than two 

 aldehyde groups are impossible. The actual preparation of a 

 compound consisting of six keto-groups, viz., the triquinoyl, 

 appears in itself hardly more striking than, e.g., that of a ben- 

 zene-ring would be to which six aldehyde groups are attached, cor- 

 responding to the as yet hypothetical aldehyde of mellitic acid. 



When, in the year 1880, I explained before the Munich 

 CJicmical Society my theory of the formation of albumin in plants, 

 and I had expressed the opinion that amido-aldehydes, an unknown 

 class of bodies then, would certainly be prepared at a future time, 

 some of the chemists present denied the possible existence 

 of such bodies, as they would change at the moment of prepa- 

 ration. Later, however, amido-aldehydes were prepared, and it 

 was found that the degree of lability varies considerably with 

 different amido-aldehydes. [Moreover, the toxicological facts 

 described (Bulletin II. No. 1), give colour to my deduc- 

 tion that the lability of the living protoplasm is caused by the 

 co-existence of aldehyde and amido-groups in the active albumin. 



To recapitulate : Labile (kineto-labile) compounds, which 

 readily change into an isomeric stable modification contain certain 

 atoms loosely bound, which condition is caused by a certain 

 amount of kinetic chemical energy counteracting the force of affi- 

 nity existing between the atoms of the compound. Every energy 

 of the kinetic kind is motion, and motion can be conveyed from 

 one body to another. Kinetic chemical energy (atomic motion) 

 may, by being conveyed to atoms of other easily changeable 

 compounds, lead to chemical changes in them (katalytic pheno- 

 mena). I have attempted to give an explanation of the conti- 

 nuity of such motions in aldehyde groups, according to our pre- 

 sent state of knowledge. But even those who ma)- consider 

 that explanation still incomplete will at least admit the cor- 

 rectness of the deduction that labile atoms are in a special state of 

 continuous vibration. 



For his convenience, the reader may now follow a juxta- 

 position of inferences of my theory and of actual observations : 



[(I) Cf. On phthalic aldehyde, Per. Chem. Ges. 20, 509. 



