1188 Sto ward.—A my loc las tic Secretory Capacities of the 
at once dissected or left intact as occasion demanded, and the dissected and 
non-dissected material subsequently dried for 4-10 hours at 30° C. The 
mixture of desiccated material and sand was placed in small 50 c.c. conical 
previously steamed Jena flasks, and to each was added 10 c.c. of either 
(1) plain distilled water (auto-digestion), or (2) solution of neutral salt (auto¬ 
digestion), or (3) active or passive papain (papain-digestion), and, finally, 
a drop or two drops of an antiseptic, nitrobenzene or toluene. The flasks, 
securely corked, were thep transferred to the thermostat at 30° C.,and there 
remained for 20 hours. After the contents of the flasks intended to serve 
as controls 1 had been slightly but distinctly alkalinized by addition of 
NaOH, the experimental and control digestions were commenced by the 
pipetting into each flask of 40 c.c. of soluble starch solution (equivalent to 
50 c.c., containing 4 grins, of starch solids per 100 c.c. of solution), and con¬ 
tinued for half an hour at 30° C. The experimental digests were then 
arrested by the addition of alkali. 
The table which follows summarizes the results of auto-digestion of the 
endosperms of air-dried seeds, and affords ample evidence of the capacity 
possessed by the endosperm under the conditions selected to augment its 
amylase content. Auto-digestion with husks, however, does not influence 
the result. 
TABLE XL. 
Ajr-dried Material: Amylase Content of Endosperms from 
Air-dried Seeds. 
Chilian barley. Auto-digestion period, 20 hours. Antiseptic, nitrobenzene. 
Exp. 
Objects, 
Amylase per 20 objects per hour 
(equivalent to mg. Cu ). 
5 endosperms + 5 husks 
5 » +5 „ 
5 ,, + (without husks) 
5 » + ,, 
2-5 » + 
Experiments 1-4, 5 objects used in each experimental and control digestion. 
Experiment 5, 2.5 „ „ „ „ „ „ „ 
2127 
2366 
2183 
2308 
2211 
Investigation of ungerminated barley substance by papain-digestion method. 
Material prepared from air-dried and steeped barley was subjected to 
predigestion with papain, under the conditions selected and described in 
the preceding section. 
A series of preliminary trials, instituted for the purpose of gaining some 
idea of the order of magnitude of the change in the enzymatic capacity of 
1 Arrest of control and experimental digestions was also carried out by boiling the digestion 
mixture in many instances. 
