A GENETICO-PHYSIOLOGICAL STUDY ON THE FORMATION ETC. 
7 
A 
B 
C 
D 
Text-fig. 1. Graphs showing the decomposition of anthocyanin 
by peroxidase. See Table 1. 
straight line suggesting that the rate of decomposition was approximately 
proportional to the time of reaction, hence the value of k calculated for the 
imimolecular reaction increased as time advanced. If, however, the value of 
log. a — x are plotted against time, the curves of B, C, and D do not form 
straight lines, while, the values of log. a — x are plotted against log. time, the 
curves show more nearly the straight lines. This seems to show that the 
value of the enzyme was not constant. The active portion of the enzyme de¬ 
composed as the reaction proceeded. Two reactions, the decomposition of the 
enzyme itself and that of anthocyanin by the active portion of the enzyme in 
the system seem to go on simultaneously, so that the rate of decomposition 
of the latter cannot be regarded as a simple uni-molecular reaction. The 
reaction may be uni-molecular only when the specific ratio of the enzyme to 
the substrate in held and in which the rate of decomposition of the enzyme 
may be so slow that its value can be considered as nearly constant, while the 
decomposition of the substance goes on with the constant rate. Hence we are 
able to consider the value of a—x as the function of time. 
Similar observation was made with laccase. Ten cc of a 0.6 per cent 
