Studies on the processes operative in solutions (XXX) and on enzyme action (XX).—The nature of enzymes and of their action as hydrolytic agents

Our object in the present communication is to utilise the experience gained in the course of two convergent series of inquiries carried on during the past 12 years in tire hope of arriving at a satisfactory solution of the problems of hydrolysis whether effected either by ordinary agents—acids or alkalies—or by enzymes. The nature of the hydrolytic process has been discussed broadly in Part XXIV of the one series and the phenomena attending the dissolution of salts in water and the behaviour of saturated solutions towards precipitants has since been considered in Part XXV of the same series: much that has been said in these two communications will be of consequence in the present discussion. The views put forward with regard to the composition of water (S. VI) and with reference to the part played by the class of substances which we have termed collectivelyhormones , in altering the state of water and of substances dissolved in it, will also be found to have a bearing on the problems presented by enzymes. The present communication, it should be stated, is in the main an amplification of the views expressed in Part II of the Studies on Enzyme Action.