r 
133 
its activities toward hydrogen peroxide and a mixture of this sub- 
stance with guaiacum. As a matter of fact, he was led to regard 
the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen as 
accomplished by these various agents as the prototype of all fermenta- 
tion ( 383 ; page 335). These erroneous ideas prevailed for a number 
of years. Thus, according to Fliigge ( 172 ) cited by Loew( 278 ), all 
enzymes can decompose hydrogen peroxide, and in 1900 Babcock and 
Russell ( 17 ) attempted to measure the activity of galactase, the pro- 
teolytic ferment of milk, by the activity of an aqueous extract of 
the separator slime toward paraphenylen-diamin and hydrogen 
peroxide (von Store ITs reagent). 
Gradually, however, facts accumulated in the literature tending 
to show that the power to decompose hydrogen peroxide and to blue 
guaiacum by means thereof were not general properties of all soluble 
ferments, nor were the two properties necessarily correlated, but that 
they were specific properties of distinct sets of substances. Thus 
Bergengrun ( 45 ) in 1888 observed that the fibrin ferment does not 
decompose hydrogen peroxide. Similarly Jacobson ( 223 ) demon- 
strated that the property of certain soluble ferments to decompose 
hydrogen peroxide could be destroyed by heating to certain temper- 
atures and by the action of acids and alkalis without in any way 
injuring the specific activity of the particular ferment. So also 
Raudnitz ( 338 ) from his studies on the oxidases of milk reached the 
conclusion that the substance in milk which decomposes hydrogen 
peroxide is essentially different from that which gives the guaiacum 
reaction. Lepinois ( 265 ) also pointed out as the result of his studies 
on the ferments decomposing hydrogen peroxide, that there is not 
always a parallelism between the quantities of oxygen liberated 
and the intensity of other reactions, such as the bluing of guaiacum, 
the reddening of guaiacol, etc. Finally, in the course of the exam- 
ination of a number of samples of tobacco for oxidases, Loew ( 278 ) 
observed that aqueous extracts of certain of the samples of cured 
tobacco gave an abundant evolution of oxygen on the addition of 
hydrogen peroxide, without giving a blue color with guaiacum. He 
proved the absence of diastase and emulsin in these samples of 
tobacco, so that evidently the power of such extracts to actively 
decompose hydrogen peroxide is not due to either of these ferments. 
He showed further that active preparations of certain of the fer- 
ments, such as diastase, emulsin, and papayotin, from other sources, 
are without action on the peroxide, so that evidently the power to 
decompose hydrogen peroxide is not a general property of enzymes. 
He found further that certain liquids and extracts have the power of 
bluing guaiacum in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, which have 
not the slightest power of decomposing the peroxide into water and 
oxygen, and conversely, certain kinds of animal and vegetable mat- 
ters have the power of ^vigorously decomposing hydrogen peroxide 
