170 
THE ENERGY OF THE LIVING PROTOPLASM. 
modification is carried still farther by the dense layer of oxygen 
surrounding the metallic particles. (I) 2 
The katalytic action of mineral acids is evidently also 
due to a certain motion in the molecules. (2) A motion of different 
character, however, must be assumed in organic compounds of 
a certain lability (cf. Chap. III). Usually the katalytic reac¬ 
tions are exothermic ones, but in special cases, where other 
agencies render their aid, also endothermic, as in the action of 
the chlorophyll-bodies upon carbonic acid in sunlight. 
The katalytic powers of platinum-black are evidently of a 
very inferior character, compared with the faculties of living 
protoplasm,—we notice above all an entire want of condensing 
influence—but in regard to simpler reactions a parallelism can 
nevertheless be shown to exist, of which I here adduce some 
further proof. One of the most general synthetical processes is 
the formation of fat from glucose in living cells, a process 
consisting in condensation and reduction : 
3 C 6 H i2 Oq —16 0 — C x 8 H 3 g 0 2 
(stearic acid) 
Cß H i2 OöT4H = 2 C 3 H§ O3 
(glycerol) 
The remarkable transformation of sugar into the higher 
fatty acids has thus far not yet been imitated, but we can at least 
obtain lower fatty acids of rancid odour if we mix a 10 % glucose 
solution with about half its weight of active platinum-black ; the 
odour will be perceptible after 1-3 hours and increase gradually. 
The main action, of course, is a direct oxidation, but simul¬ 
taneously a reduction is going on in other molecules which yield 
up a part of their oxygen also to glucose molecules under the 
influence of platinum-black. (3) Neither lævulose nor cane sugar 
will yield this result. Platinum-black, also, deprived of its 
absorbed oxygen in one way or other, is inactive in this regard. 
(1) Platinum-black can absorb 800 times its own volume of oxygen (Docbereiner), 
but this alone would not suffice to explain its oxidising power, compressed oxygen 
possessing no increased energy at ordinary temperatures. Cf. also O. Locw, Ber. D. 
Cliem. Ges. 2:i, 290 and 677, where I gave first the above explanation of the katalytic 
action of platinum black. 
(2) We will not enter here upon the most recent views in regard to the action of 
acids, more light being still necessary. 
(3) O. Loew, Ber. Deutsch. Chem. Ges. 33,865. 
