No abstract

This theory has been expecially valuable in providing a starting point for obtaining more accurate knowledge as to the specifio effeets which certain substances exert upon systems of autooxidation. Prior to the work of Moureu and Dufraisse inhibitory activity was regarded, in ,eneral, as an example of negative catalysis. This term, used rather indiscriminatly by early workers in the field, to include all types of retarded activity, i8, aocording to Moureu and Dufraisse, somewhat misleading especially when used in connection with oxidation reactions. Negative catalysis, they point out, seems to imply a catalysis which would reverse the course of an otherwise spontaneous reaction; this, it is not able to do wi~hout the addition of external ener~. Furthermore th.ir results showed conclusively that inhibitors of auto-oxidation were invariably oxidizable substances and therefore they preferred to speak of them as antioxygens rather than negative catalysts. Although Moureu and•Dufraisse worked chiefly with aldehydes and unsaturated hydrocarbons, their principle of anti-oxygenic activity has been extended to the most diverse fields of science. Today their theory stands well supported by evidence from both chemistry and biology and has formed a working basis for subsequent investigations. Since 1922, the date of Moureu and Dufraisse's first publication on antioxygens, there has been stimulated a vast amount of research upon this subject.