82 Schunck — The Chemistry of Chlorophyll . 
soumettant alors a l’action de ce liquide le corps qui provient 
de la decoloration de la chlorophyll e ’ (an alumina lake of 
chlorophyll) ‘ et agitant la liqueur pendant quelques secondes, 
on voit se produire une reaction bien remarquable ; Tether 
retient la matiere jaune des feuilles et conserve une coloration 
d’un beau jaune, tandis que Tacide chlorhydrique reagissant 
sur la partie de la chlorophylle qui a ete decoloree, reproduit 
une substance d’un bleu magnifique. Les deux couleurs de la 
chlorophylle, le bleu et le jaune, se trouvent done ainsi isolees 
et ne peuvent plus se melanger pour produire une teinte verte, 
puisqu’elles sont retenues par deux liquides differents, Tether 
et la liqueur acide . . . J’ai donne le nom de phylloxan thine a 
la matiere jaune soluble dans Tether, et de phyllocyanine a la 
matiere bleue qui reste en dissolution dans la liqueur acide V 
This is the well-known chlorophyll-reaction which has generally 
been connected with the name of Fremy, though it had pre- 
viously been observed by Berzelius as characterising his second 
modification of chlorophyll. From what Fremy states it has 
been inferred that he considered chlorophyll to be simply a 
mixture of a blue and a yellow colouring matter which were 
separated by his method of treatment ; but this has been 
denied by Fremy himself, who in a subsequent memoir 2 de- 
scribes some experiments from which he concludes that 
chlorophyll is a kind of coloured fat, which by saponification 
splits up into phyllocyanic acid, a substance which yields blue 
compounds and represents the fatty acid, and phylloxanthin 
which is yellow and crystalline, and corresponds to the 
glycerin of ordinary fats. In a third communication to the 
French Academy 3 , Fremy states that phylloxanthin and 
phyllocyanic acid do not exist in a state of combination 
in leaves, the latter being in fact present in the form of a 
potassium salt. The final conclusion at which he arrived is 
stated as follows: ‘Je crois done que la demonstration est 
complete, et qu’il m’est permis d’affirmer aujourd’hui que la 
matiere colorante des feuilles est un melange de phylloxanthine 
1 Comptes Rendus, L. 409. 
2 lb. LX . 1 83. 
s *Ib. LXXXIV. 983. 
