Notes. 
3 ii 
had permitted the inception of the changes which normally, at high 
temperatures, result in coagulation; but in this case they were 
arrested, some precursor of alkali-albumin being probably produced, 
as is often the case on slowly coagulating albumin solutions. Under 
these circumstances, however, the entire mass of the albumin had 
undergone this change. This supposition turned out to be correct, 
for the addition of a trace of acetic acid at once caused the solution to 
be susceptible to coagulation at about 60-62° C. 1 Hence it is fair 
to infer that although the slight amount of moisture introduced during 
the opening of the tube did not suffice to enable complete coagulation 
to occur, it did permit the early changes to begin, and to slowly, and 
in a modified way, to affect the entire mass. This experiment was 
repeated several times, and always with the same result. 
It seems .difficult, in the light of the foregoing observations, to resist 
the inference that in the complete absence of moisture, albumin may 
be reduced to a state of relative molecular (or micellar) immobility ; 
the rearrangements which, in the presence of water and at a sufficiently 
high temperature, normally take place in its ultimate structure being 
held in abeyance during the suspension of the essential condition of 
the presence of sufficient moisture. The substance is brought, so to 
speak, into a static condition; chemical or physico-chemical change 
is inhibited, just as is an interaction between phosphorus and oxygen 
when conditions of complete dryness obtain. It is tempting to 
extend these considerations to the case of seeds and spores, e.g. of 
certain Bacteria, and to ask whether similar conclusions may not be 
fairly assumed to obtain there, for it may well be a fact that the 
protoplasm, like the albumin which is at any rate akin to it, when 
sufficiently desiccated withstands conditions which otherwise would 
certainly promote chemical disintegration. They, too, appear to be 
reduced to a * static * condition by drying, and the researches of 
Romanes 2 indicated no measurable chemical change as proceeding in 
them under these circumstances; and, again, the investigations of 
Brown and Escombe 3 , and of Sir W. Thiselton-Dyer 4 , have also 
rendered it difficult to believe, that, when subjected to the other end of 
1 A solution of albumin treated with a very small quantity of a dilute solution 
of potash undergoes a similar change. The substance formed is not true alkali- 
albumen, since no precipitate is produced on neutralizing, whilst a true coagulum 
appears on heating this neutralized solution. 
2 Proc. Roy. Soc., vol. lvii. 3 Ibid., vol. lxii. 
4 Ibid., vol., lxv. 
