In studying the conditions under which enzymes are produced in seeds at the beginning of germination, two main difficulties have been encountered. The one has been in devising means of maintaining sterility in the material without at the same time interfering with the formation and action of enzymes. Some experiments have been carried out with the object of determining the relative efficiency of some of the more commonly used antiseptics, but, at present, these are not sufficiently far advanced to admit of any general conclusions being drawn. They have, however, shown that saturation with chloroform ensures sterility under the conditions of the experiments which form the subject of this paper. The other difficulty has been in demonstrating small degrees of enzymatic activity. It is with this latter question I wish to deal here.