22 
Transactions Texas Academy of Science. — 1907. 
versa'lly recognized as a comprehensive ^theory of fermentation for the 
reason that “life without air” could not apply to non-living ferments; 
and since Buchner has recently shown that filtered juice of the yeast 
plant, obtained by subjecting yeast cells to hydraulic pressure and pass- 
ing the expressed juice through a Berkefeld filter, is still capable of 
fermenting sugar, Pasteur’s “life without air” theory will no longer 
apply to living ferments. Another objection to Pasteur’s conception is 
founded upon the fact that free exposure of yeast to air does not to 
any considerable degree lessen the capacity of the yeast to ferment 
sugar. “If yeast also causes fermentation in the presence of oxygen, 
it follows that we can not correctly say that it is the absence of oxygen 
which forces it into an intense transformation of its metabolism, in the 
direction of alcoholic fermentation.” 
Green carried the biologic conception of ferments to the extreme of 
concluding that non-living enzymes, as well as living ferment cells, in 
fact all ferments, are vital structures and their actions are vital actions 
thus carrying the whole matter beyond the reach of scientific investi- 
gation. The fallacy of this claim is clearly made evident by the work 
of von Bermaik and Bredig, who have shown that metals under certain 
conditions may be identical in action with enzymes. Simon (“Physio- 
logical Chemistry”) says, “We know that properties which are sup- 
posedly characteristic of enzymes are possessed also by certain elements 
which are found only in the inorganic world. The most notable prop- 
erty of the enzymes is their ability to effect an amount of change which 
is out of all proportion to the quantity of enzyme present, and the fact 
that the enzyme itself apparently does not enter into the reaction. 
These properties, however, are common to certain metals and their 
oxides. Bredig and von Bermaik say That a gram atomic weight (193 
grammas) of colloidal platinum diffused through 70,000,000 litres of 
water shows a perceptible reaction on more than 1,000,000 times the 
quantity of hydrogen peroxide; and H. C. Jones demonstrated that the 
reduction that here takes place is a mono-molecular reaction.’ 
“Curiously enough, the analogy between the action of such metallic 
solutions and the enzymes goes further. Finely divided palladium, 
platinum, iridum, osmium, etc., thus have the power of inverting cane 
sugar, like one of the enzymes (invertase), and certain poisons, such as 
hydrocyanic acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, carbon disulphide and mer- 
curic chloride, which inhibit, or even suspend, the action of enzymes 
entirely, exert a similar influence upon the colloidal solution of 
platinum.” 
Naegeli took the important step ( Oppenheimer, “Ferments and Their 
Action”) “of substituting molecular and atomic vibrations for Liebig’s 
chemical decomposition.” “He assumed that the vibrations of the atoms 
