Am.  Jour,  Pharm.  ) 
•August,  1911.  j 
Action  of  the  Enzymes. 
375 
motion  to  another  atom  or  molecule  in  contact  with  it,"  would  thus 
seem  to  acquire  a  special  significance  in  the  biochemistry  of  the 
enzymes  and  might  account  for  the  many  catalyses  and  syntheses 
that  occur  in  our  own  bodies  and  in  growing  plants  and  animals, 
under  the  actions  of  enzymes  when  influenced  by  the  sun's  rays  and 
other  favorable  conditions.  Ostwald's  generalization  practically  im- 
plies the  same  character  of  action  when  he  states  that  these  changes 
are  brought  about  by  the  increased  activity  of  molecular  movement. 
Accepting  either  or  both  of  these  theories,  even  with  modifica- 
tions, they  at  least  reconcile  the  transformations  that  may  occur  in 
the  phenomena  of  digestion  as  a  peculiar  quality  of  the  enzymes,  the 
smallest  particles  of  which  may  be  assumed  as  being  in  a  state  of 
motion,  a  state  which  is  communicated  to  the  atoms  of  the  material 
that  is  being  digested  and  with  which  they  are  in  contact,  thereby 
causing  the  atoms  of  the  molecules  of  this  matter  to  change  their 
position  and  rearrange  themselves  in  new  groupings.  Supplement 
this  induced  rearrangement  with  the  processes  of  either  oxidation  or 
hydration,  dependent  of  course  on  the  peculiar  quality  of  the  par- 
ticular enzyme,  and  then  carry  this  conception  a  little  further  and 
infer  the  action  of  disturbing  external  factors  like  heat  or  light, 
which  are  vibratory  in  their  communications, — for  it  is  entirely 
possible  that  the  waves  from  these  may  intensify  or  abnor- 
malize this  existing  process, — and  the  products  that  are  thus 
formed  must  necessarily  alter  with  the  temperature  and  the 
other  modifications  of  transformation  in  which  the  enzyme  works, 
because  the  changes  in  the  newer  bodies  are  the  result  of  these 
imparted  energies  and  the  atomic  rearrangement  that  is  thus  brought 
about  must  stand  in  particular  relation  to  the  manner  of  the  actions. 
During  the  past  winter  my  attention  was  called  to  an  auto-digestion 
of  pepsin  that  could  only  be  reconciled  by  this  reasoning,  and  an 
experimentation  of  several  months  with  recurring  resultants  under 
similar  conditions  has  been  an  interesting  problem.  As  we  all 
know,  pepsin  is  an  extremely  sensitive  body,  and  the  best  chemists 
have  never  been  able  to  analyze  it.  We  all  know  it  is  a  soluble, 
unorganized  ferment  that  differs  in  its  mode  of  action  from  living 
ferments  such  as  yeast  apd  bacteria,  in  that  it  possesses  no  power  of 
self-nutrition  and  multiplication.  Like  all  other  animal  extracts  it 
is  surrounded  by  the  limitations  that  nature  has  placed  upon  it. 
It  will  bear  an  exposure  to  a  prolonged  low  temperature  without 
being  injured,  and  it  is  active  only  in  weak  acid  solutions,  and  then 
