474 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. XXIX, No. 10 
Table II.— The ratio of the rate of the reaction in undiluted to the rate of reaction 
in diluted formalized ser ums held at a temperature of 38 0 C. 
Proportion of noneuglolmlin protein converted 
25.. 
33 H 
50_ _ 
60_ _ 
Minutes required to j 
effect conversion 
— j Ratio 
Undiluted Diluted j 
rum 
serum 
16 
1 
: 1.9 
11 
21 
1 : 
: 1.9 
17 
36 
1 
: 2.1 
24 
73 
1 
: 3.0 
33 
107 
1 
: 3.2 
| 
6.00 
^s.oo 
I 
§&oa 
i 2SO 
a 
\ 2.00 
a. 
k\AOO 
\ 
% 0.60 
O 
' 
1 
V 
% 
1 
\ 
\ 
1 
k, 
\ 
\ 
k 
\ 
\ 
\ 
w 
jgst 
20 
Fig. 1 —The rates of Ira 
40 
60 
30 /OO 
A*/A/0'7-£r& 
/20 
/4-0 
/60 
/SO 
reformation of the more soluble serum proteins into euglobulins in undiluted 
and diluted formolized serums 
By comparing the time required for a 
given amount of work to be done in the 
concentrated and in the half-concen¬ 
trated serums (Table II), it will be 
seen that in the earlier stages of the 
reaction the ratio between the times 
required for a given amount of trans¬ 
formation to take place in the proteins 
of the concentrated and half-concen¬ 
trated serums is approximately as 1:2. 
When the noneuglobulin proteins had 
been reduced by one-half an increase in 
this ratio takes place. Essentially the 
same results have been obtained in sev¬ 
eral other experiments. The probable 
cause of the change in this ratio will be 
discussed at the end of this section. 
It is regretted that pressure of other 
work did not permit an extension of 
this study to include solutions of pure 
pseudoglobulins and albumins; the re¬ 
sults obtained, however, point rather 
strongly to the probability that the 
reactions involved in the transforma¬ 
tion of the more soluble serum proteins 
of formolized serum consist, at least 
in the early stages, of reactions of the 
second order. 
Confirmation of the probability of 
the reactions belonging to the second 
order was supplied unexpectedly by the 
following facts: Of the several formulas 
employed to determine whether a reac¬ 
tion is of the second order, one of them, 
t a—x 
