Chemical phenomena in life / [Friedrich Czapek].

  • Czapek, Friedrich, 1868-1921.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Chemical phenomena in life / [Friedrich Czapek]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    research work has not been carried out very often, but the few experiments which have already been made render it most probable that Quetelet’s law holds for chemical properties as well as for morphological characteristics. It would be com¬ paratively easy to examine the amount of acid contained in leaves, the amount of starch or of protein which is contained in one individual in a great number of cases in order to confirm the results mentioned above. No research work at all has been done to determine the velocity of chemical processes or reactions in a great number of single individuals. Data without any difficulty could be worked out on the velocity at which starch or protein disappear from germinating seeds or on the intensity of respiration in many individuals which live under exactly the same conditions. It is difficult to say what results would be thus obtained. In any case such research work is highly desirable. The second kind of variation takes place sud¬ denly, eruption-like, and culminates in the pro¬ duction in single individuals of quite different characteristics which are markedly inheritable. Since De Vries’ famous book on these phenomena, we call such variations Mutations. Chemical mutations are widely spread and well known. In horticulture and agriculture many new mutations which were kept on account of their valuable chemical properties have in the course of time been isolated. Fruits, containing an extraordinary