Newcombe. — Cellulose- Enzymes. 
59 
exposed edges of the sections, an indication that with a long 
continued action of the ferment the whole wall would go 
into solution. 
By two tests the Aspergillus - ferment shows itself more 
active than the Barley- ferment in attacking reserve cellulose. 
If the same weights of dry ferment of each kind are dissolved 
in equal volumes of water, the A spergillus-i erment effects 
a solution of reserve cellulose the more quickly. This means 
of comparison has, however, little value, since it is unfair to 
compare the dry weights till more is known of the purity 
of the ferments in the extracts. A better method is the 
following : — if solutions of both ferments are made so that 
each will act upon starch with the same degree of intensity, 
then I have found that the Taka-ferment effects a solution 
of walls of Barley-endosperm and cotyledonary walls of the 
Lupin in shorter time than the Barley-ferment effects such 
solution. 
The period required for the solution of cell-membranes 
is greatly prolonged when the ferment must penetrate to 
a considerable depth. For, though Griiss 1 has shown that 
cellulose-enzyme will penetrate a membrane and that diastase 
will migrate through a membrane, and my own observations 
recorded here show that the Taka-ferment causes the middle 
of the Barley-endosperm-wall to become hyaline before the 
outside of the wall, yet the cellulose-ferment works from 
the surface of a section comparatively slowly toward the 
interior, so that in a thin section of a cotyledon of the Lupin 
in a strong ferment often renewed, the walls of the most 
deeply lying cells may require many weeks to yield up all 
their substance to solution. 
C. Extract of Lupinus alb us. 
Seedlings of Lupinus albus were grown in sawdust till they 
had attained a length of approximately io cm., when the 
cotyledons were gathered, minced, and dried in an oven 
1 Ueber das Verhalten des diastatischen Enzyms in der Keimpflanze : Jahrb. f. 
wiss. Bot., xxvi (1894), 379. 
