STUDIES ON X-AGENT

IV. EFFECT OF X-AGENT ON PROTEIN SOLUTION

Abstract

The turbidity or the transmittance of a protein solution was found to be influenced by a substance or a material present near it. Temperature had nothing to do with this phenomenon. This was demonstrated with solutions of various egg proteins and also with diluted solutions of human serum.
This effect of a substance could be observed all around the substance, but the effect varied with the direction in which the protein solution was placed. Thus the pattern of the effect around a substance was extremely complicated.
Even when the same substance was the object of investigation, the pattern was found to be different depending on the time of the investigation and the place where the substance was placed. It was impossible, therefore, to obtain two identical patterns even when the investigation was made with the same substance.
These strange phenomena have previously been found with a kind of bacteria and also with two kinds of seeds. In the case of these organisms, their growth rates were taken as the criteria, while in this case of protein solution the degree of change in its turbidity was measured. The effect of a substance which was beneficial for the growth of the bacteria was frequently noted by an increase in the turbidity of a protein solution.
It is considered that the X-agent may be involved in a change of some fine structure in the protein molecule. The change in the turbidity can be accounted for by assuming that the X-agent is capable of liberating by this change certain active structures or radicals which enable the molecule to combine with the others. Its effect upon the growth of the organisms can be explained in the same manner.