CHAPTER IV. 
Active Albumen as reserve-material in plants. 
The facts described in the last chapter lead us immediately 
to the questions : Do the active proteids also exist as such, i. e. 
in the non-organised condition, in plantcells ? If so, are they just 
as labil as in the organised state, i. e. as living protoplasm ? 
Is it possible to obtain directly the chemical reactions upon 
the aldehydnature of those compounds ?—To these questions 
Dr. Thomas Bokorny and myself have devoted considerable time 
and attention and our investigations^ have shown : i. That 
there exists in many plants, apparently in a state of solution a 
certain protein-substance quite different from ordinary proteids ; 
2. That this substance is capable of giving certain reactions, of 
which the living protoplasm on account of its great lability is 
incapable, and which neither dead protoplasm nor the known 
soluble proteids show; 3. That this substance is used up 
during the growth and multiplication of cells, and that it plays 
therefore the rôle of a reserve-material. 
The reader will be made acquainted in the following lines 
with the principal observations relating to this discovery. 1 2) — 
Many vegetable objects, algae as well as parts of higher deve¬ 
loped plants, show under the influence of weak bases like cofféïn 
(0,1-0,5%) or antipyrin (best in 0,5% solutions) a remarkable 
phenomenon, consisting in the appearance of a large numbe r 
of minute transparent colorless globules, 3) that gradually uni te 
1) Of our publications I mention here merely: 
O. Loew and Th. Bokorny : Die chemische Kraftquelle im lebenden Pro¬ 
toplasma, Munich 1882.— 
Botan. Centralbl. 188g, and 1893.— Biol. Centralbl. Vol 11.— 
Flora 1892. p. 117.— 
Dr. Th. Bokorny , now professor at the Military Academy in Munich, publish¬ 
ed contributions in : 
Pringsheims Jahrb. Vol 19. and Vol. 20. Pflüg. Arch. Vol. 45 and Vol. 50. 
2) I describe here the facts in the order, in which it appears most convenient 
for the reader to conceive. I neither enter therefore upon a sketch of the develop¬ 
ment of our investigations, nor upon a relation of the discussions brought on by 
our publications. Suffice it to say that the objections have been refuted as wholly 
unfounded. 
3) Coffein acts still in higher dilutions than antipyrin. 
