476 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Jak. 1, 1902. 
o£ the colony are, as usual, very intcrestmg. 
It is noted that consideivii>le progress has 
been made in the spread of the authority of the 
Governmeut everywhere. The year, however, 
has been uuiortunate, as whooping-cough, 
Avh'c iwas introduced by two white childien 
from Cooktown. has ravaged rhe country, 
■with dire consequences to native life. The 
malady first spread rapidly along the coasts, 
and then into the interior. " But the mis- 
chief does not end there, for as each village 
is attacked, and as no death can, in the 
belief of the native, be the result of any 
natural cause, but must have been com- 
passed hy some unknown enemy, who can 
only be discovered by witchcraft, the 
sorcerer is at once consulted, and some un- 
fortunate villager of some other tribe is de- 
signated as culprit, and a midnight massacre 
of innocent people is the result." A curious 
circumstance which is noticed is that a wide 
gulf generally exists between prisoners and 
free men in the native mind. Free natives 
will not work or camp with prisoner;;. Yet 
no stigma rests on the prisoner who has 
served out his sentence and is released. He 
is regarded as having purged his ottence 
against the law. In civilized societies the 
stigma always remains, and " this is the 
real difference between the degree of inten- 
sity in the punishment of civilized and 
uncivilized men."— London Times, Nov. 22. 
■ — 
THE ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION OF 
THE COCONUT PALM 
forms the subject of an interesting paper 
by Mr. O F Cook in a recent issue of the 
the United States National Herbarium. It 
is contended that this most useful tree must 
have originated on the P.acific Coast of South 
America and spread from thence to Polynesia 
and Asia. It is pointed out that all the other 
species of cocos are natives of South America. 
The coconut palm was found upon the Pacific 
coast by early Spanish explorers. Mr. Cook 
also claims an American origin for the 
banana and jAxn.— Nature, Nov. 28. 
- -il>- ■ 
THE NEW TEA FERMENT, 
{•?peci(dly communicated. ) 
The original discovery of the oxidising plant 
enzymes is principally centered round the In- 
vestigations of G. Bertrand who investigated 
tlic neculiar properties of Japanese Laquer 
.and "proved that their hardening property 
was caused by the action of an oxydase 
which he named laccase acting on the pecu- 
bar juice, of the plant Rhus vermicifera. 
The juice which is of the consistency of 
thick' nale cream, remains unchanged when 
storpirin well stoppered bottles, but almost 
inuned ately commences to turn brown 
and haiden when exposed to the air. Here 
was a, ( ear case of oxidization and it was 
proved !hat the juice liad not the power of 
hard'--nii g in the absence of its enzyme, only 
are:~inoi s soluble grease being obtained under 
sucii cir umst.inccs. 
The al ove discovpry gave an impetus to 
the euqi U'y into many domestic problems, 
amongsi. others as to why an apple turns 
Ijiown when the rind is cut or broken and 
• l is exposed to the atmosphere. L. Lindet 
inlSOli explained this discoloration as result- 
ing from an enzyme to which was subse- 
quently given the name of malase. The rapid 
cliscok)ration of tlie cut slices of beet in 
the sugar works even when they had not 
been in contact with iron or steel was traced 
to an enzyme wiiich was named tyrosinase. 
C. Loew in America, wlieu investigating the 
cause of the flavouring of tobacco for the 
U..S. Government, after deciding that it was 
not caused by Ijacteria, described first an 
enzyme, then a per-enzyine, and lastly a 
catalase as pre'sent in the leaves, .ail of winch 
had the power of oxidising some constitu- 
ents of the leaf, and it was entirely to their 
action that he attributed tlie different flavours 
of the tobacco. One named olease is also 
present in the olive whicli is the principal 
agent of its decomposition before being put 
in the press, it also passes into the oil ex- 
pressed at a temperature tielow WC. and 
conti'nues to carry oxygen thereto forming 
oleic acid, ai etic ;ioid, sabacic acid, (ci-. Mus- 
t.ard oil, ,1 s .^ucli, is not present in the seed, 
but is a product of an enzyme myrosin acting 
on a glucoside sinigrin, or ijotassium myro- 
nate, whicli is also present in the seed. In 
the presence of water the myrosin decom- 
poses the potassium hydrate, splitting it inco 
potassium hydrogen sulphate, sugar and 
allylthiocarbiued (mustard oil). Flax castor 
oil and many other plants contain in the 
seed an enzyme called lepose. Care must b« 
taken in experimenting with these enzymes 
as tliey arenot all harmless compounds. In the 
Rosaceae is found .in enzyme, emulsion, often 
associated with a glucoside amydalin, which , 
it decomposes into benzaldehyde (oil of 
bitter almonds), sugar and the very poison- 
ous prussic acid. The above are some of 
the we'l-known enzymes from tlie action of 
which, by an.ilogy, we can to some extent 
trace that of the one found in tea. In 
almost all these cases oxygen is carried hy 
the enzyme to the tannin and thus dark 
coloured oxy coinpounds are produced which 
are precipitated in the cell walls as a fast 
permanent dye. While the cell remains intact 
the oxygen caimot obt.-iin access to the 
enzyme or to the tannin, but as soon as the 
cell walls .are raptured oxygen gains access 
and the action commences at once. 
A number of people have discovered differ- 
ent enzjnnes and have assigned to them 
different powers ; but the broad fact remains 
that the majority of them have the uower 
of oxidising lacoll, otlrer palyofcomic phenols, 
as also their acid derivates gallic — acid txnd 
tannin,— as well as tlie polyphenols contained 
in the group OH or NH-z, either in the ortho 
or in the pari position. The known enzymes 
all appear to belong to the proteid class of 
organic substances and a small quantity of 
each is enabled to transform a large bulk 
Of the object on which it acts without in- 
creas^ing or very much diminishing in bulk, 
liiey are generally destroyed at a temper- 
ature of about 70°C., are very much more 
active in the dark, and are gr.adually des- 
troyed by bright light. Now 
TO TURN MORE DIRKCTLY TO TRX, 
an enzyme is present in the leaf, also a 
per-enzyme and a cataUse, the former 
of which we may not inaptly call 
