58 Buller . — The Enzymes of Polyporus sqnamosus , Huds . 
to change its reaction gradually from blue to red, indicating the formation 
of erythro-dextrin. We thus have another proof of the presence of an 
amylase in the extract. 
(14) Hadromase . According to Czapek, Merulius lacrimans and 
certain other wood-destroying Fungi produce an enzyme which he has 
called hadromase, and which is capable of splitting hadromal from 
cellulose 1 . He regards these bodies as being united in an ether-like 
compound in lignified membranes 2 . 
In the case of Merulius lacrimans the hadromal does not appear 
to be destroyed, for it can be dissolved out of rotted wood with alcohol, 
&c., in considerable quantities after the cellulose has practically disappeared. 
On the other hand, I found it impossible to extract hadromal in this 
way from the sawdust of the wood of Acer pseudoplatanus which had 
been rotted by Polyporus sqnamosus. The tests for hadromal were made 
with phloroglucin. If the mycelium in the wood-cells produces hadromase 
it seems likely that the hadromal split off from the cellulose becomes 
immediately destroyed by some further chemical process. 
The extract of the fruit-bodies was not tested for hadromase, but 
a study of the wood of Acer pseudoplatanus , which was being rotted by 
the mycelium of the Fungus, showed that some of the fibres were under- 
going ‘ delignification 5 or that the walls were becoming so altered as 
to take on the reactions for cellulose with chlorzinc iodine 3 . Further, 
the hyphae had made numerous holes in the lignified cell-walls. It 
seems, therefore, not unlikely that the mycelium produces hadromase. 
One could scarcely expect it to occur in the fruit-bodies. 
Thin slices of the fruit-bodies were carefully dried at a temperature 
of about 8o c C. and preserved in a well-stoppered bottle. After nine 
months, tests were again made for some of the enzymes. The extract 
from this preserved material appeared to be just as active as that made 
from the same material when it was first dried. Thus milk was clotted 
in fifteen minutes, an 02 per cent. Lintner’s starch solution underwent 
complete hydrolysis in three hours, and gelatine was liquefied about as 
rapidly as in the first experiments. I have, therefore, found the material 
well suited for experiments by students in the laboratory. 
Kohnstamm 4 states that he found an amylase, emulsin, and a protease 
in the fruit-bodies of Polyporus squamosus. His material, however, was 
1 Czapek, Zur Biologie der holzbewohnenden Pilze, Ber. d. D. Bot. Gesell., Bd. xvii, 1899, 
p. 166. 
2 Czapek, Ueber die sogenannten Ligninreaetionen des Holzes. Zeitschrift fur physiologische 
Chemie, Bd. xxvii, 1899, p. 14. 
3 Buller, loc. cit. 
4 Amylolytische, glycosidspaltende, proteolytische und Cellulose-losende Fermente in holz- 
bewohnenden Pilzen. Beih. z. Bot. Centralbl., Bd. x, 1901, p. 90. 
