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Enzymes in Human
and Animal Nutrition
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Enzymes in Human
and Animal Nutrition
Principles and Perspectives
Edited by
Carlos Simões Nunes
CSN Consulting, Versailles, France
Vikas Kumar
University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, United States
Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier
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and our arrangements with organizations such as the Copyright Clearance Center and the Copyright Licensing
Agency, can be found at our website: www.elsevier.com/permissions.
This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright by the Publisher (other than
as may be noted herein).
Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our
understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary.
Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any
information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they
should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional
responsibility.
To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume any liability
for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or
from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.
ISBN: 978-0-12-805419-2
v
vi Contents
PART I PHYTASES
CHAPTER 3 General aspects of phytases ...................................... 53
Vikas Kumar and Amit K. Sinha
3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................53
3.2 Phytases ........................................................................................54
3.2.1 Background ....................................................................... 54
3.2.2 Unit of Phytase Activity ................................................... 56
3.2.3 History of Phytases ........................................................... 56
3.3 Classification of Phytases ............................................................56
3.3.1 pH of Activity ................................................................... 57
3.3.2 Site of Hydrolysis ............................................................. 57
3.3.2.1 3-Phytases (EC 3.1.3.8) .......................................57
3.3.2.2 5-Phytase (EC 3.1.3.72) .......................................60
3.3.2.3 6-Phytases (EC 3.1.3.26) .....................................60
3.4 Sources of Phytases......................................................................60
3.4.1 Plant Phytases ................................................................... 61
3.4.2 Microbial Phytases............................................................ 61
3.4.3 Mucosal Phytase Derived From Small Intestine .............. 61
3.4.4 Gut Microfloral Phytases .................................................. 63
3.4.4.1 Suitability of genetically modified phytases .......63
3.5 Application of Phytase .................................................................63
3.5.1 Phytases as Food Additives .............................................. 63
3.5.2 Phytases as Feed Additives............................................... 64
3.5.3 Production of Plant Protein Isolates and
Concentrates ...................................................................... 64
3.5.4 Source of Myo-Inositol Phosphates.................................. 65
3.6 Health Benefits of Phytases and Potential Concerns ..................65
Contents vii
PART IV PROTEASES
CHAPTER 12 Proteases—general aspects .................................... 257
Petra Philipps-Wiemann
12.1 Introduction ................................................................................257
12.2 Classification of Proteases/Peptidases .......................................258
Contents xi
16.1.2.2 Oxygenases.....................................................314
16.1.2.3 Peroxidases.....................................................315
16.1.2.4 Transaminases ................................................316
16.1.2.5 Hydrolases ......................................................316
16.1.2.6 Lyases.............................................................317
16.1.2.7 Isomerases ......................................................317
16.1.2.8 Ligases............................................................317
16.2 Enzymes for Decontamination of Mycotoxins..........................318
16.2.1 Mycotoxins Introduction............................................... 318
16.2.2 Types of Mycotoxins and Their Decontamination
Process........................................................................... 320
16.2.2.1 Aflatoxins .......................................................320
16.2.2.2 Ochratoxin......................................................321
16.2.2.3 Fumonisin.......................................................322
16.2.2.4 Deoxynivalenol ..............................................323
16.2.2.5 Zearalenone ....................................................323
16.3 Conclusion ..................................................................................324
References.................................................................................. 324
Index ......................................................................................................................527
List of Contributors
Rui Bezerra
University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal
Myriam L.M.N. Cerutti
Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
Srijit Chakravarty
Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Samastipur, Bihar, India
Albino A. Dias
University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal
Parisa Fallahi
Kellogg Institute of Food, Nutrition, and Technology Research, Battle Creek,
MI, United States
Diwakar Goli
Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Lavanya Goodla
Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Guangzhou, China
David Guerrand
Toulouse White Biotechnology (TWB), Ramonville Saint-Agne, France
Habte-Michael Habte-Tsion
Kentucky State University, Frankfort, KY, United States
Gilberto Igrejas
University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal; Nova
University of Lisbon, Caparica, Portugal
Shivendra Kumar
Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Samastipur, Bihar, India
Vikas Kumar
University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, United States
Adinarayana Kunamneni
Instituto de Catálisis y Petroleoquı́mica, CSIC, Madrid, Spain; University of
New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, United States
Kjell Malmlöf
Swedish Farmers’ Foundation for Agricultural Research, Stockholm, Sweden
Manjunath Manubolu
The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States
xix
xx List of Contributors
xxi
xxii Preface
reader is able to develop new insights for applications of enzymes in foods and
feeds. The authors of the various chapters have a wealth of knowledge in various
aspects of enzymes for feed and food. After chapters dealing with more general
aspects of enzymes, phytase is discussed in detail. The direct application of phy-
tase has been extensively investigated in pigs and poultry, but has also been
investigated for use in humans. Although for humans the improved digestibility
of phosphorus may be less important than for animals, its effect on micro-
minerals such as iron and zinc may be of great importance for many people.
In 10 chapters, depolimarizating enzymes are discussed, both from a food and
feed perspective. The multitude of applications of such enzymes is amazing, and
we are only at the beginning of our understanding of how these can be used more
effectively. Increased understanding of vegetable cell wall composition and mor-
phology, and of their effect within the gastrointestinal tract will ultimately result
in the development of more specific enzymes to break down or modify these
complex structures. In combination with currently used enzymes such as xyla-
nases and cellulases, they will not only enable the more complete use of potential
food/feed energy, but also induce specific effects on the gut wall and the gut
microflora, resulting in improved gut health (for both humans and animals).
Lately, the importance of the microbiota in human diseases such as obesity has
been described. The production of prebiotics by a specific (combination of)
enzyme(s) may promote a favorable microbial balance, and thus promote health.
In the third part of the book a number of different enzymes and some direct
microbials are discussed. I was especially triggered by the chapter on chitinases.
Given the future predicted protein shortage and our focus on the use of insects in
feed and food, this enzyme may prove to be of great importance. Protein digest-
ibility of many insects is limited because of the presence of chitin, but may be
greatly improved by effective application of chitinases.
The final area of focus of the book deals with important technological issues
related to enzyme use and production: formulation and analysis, the continued
discussion of regulatory aspects, and the overall questions regarding economy.
The final chapter of the book contains a great review regarding the potential of
enzymes for both humans and animals, discusses general perspectives, and pro-
vides conclusions.
The editors should be complemented on bringing together many experts in the
field of enzyme use in feeds and foods and achieving the OneNutrition approach
in the use of enzymes in nutrition. We have to look into each other’s kitchens and
silos more often! This book allows the reader to look into those silos and kitch-
ens, and be able to develop new insights and understanding of the application of
enzymes in food and feed.
Wouter Hendriks1,2
1
Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
2
Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
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Acknowledgments
First of all, we would like to thank Elsevier for accepting our proposal for this
book more than 2 years ago. The challenge has been handled professionally and
also in a friendly manner, particularly by Jaclyn Truesdell and Megan Ball.
We believe in the interest of the present book, taking into account that humans
and animals are targets for dietary supplements of microbial enzymes. There are
plenty of published works on industrial applications and, more rarely, on direct
human or animal applications. Thus far, extensive reviews on both aspects have
not been frequently available. Also, subjects such as the basis and the state-of-
the-art regarding the use of enzymes in therapy, decontamination, and remedia-
tion, as well as intellectual property, represent quite a new development in the
present work.
Obviously we would like to express our deep recognition of the difficult, but
fantastic work performed by all of the co-authors. One of us, Carlos Simões
Nunes, has cooperated, for a longtime, with many of them in a very stimulating,
constructive, and productive manner; they have become, after the start of shared
work more than 30 years ago, very good friends. On this matter, we would like to
mention the following in a very similar rank: Kjell Malmlöf, Glenn Monastersky,
Petra Phillips, Guido Rychen, and Kurt Vogel.
We miss the contribution of two very important colleagues, for reasons that
are independent of their personal choice. Both are highly personally respected
colleagues and furthermore friends, with a stimulating capacity for discussions.
They share a broad knowledge and experience of nutritional physiology and food
and feed additives. We have always had, and continue have interesting exchanges
with them, particularly on several perspectives of the development of new
enzymes and the prospect of enzyme applications.
xxv
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Introduction
INTRODUCTION
Enzymes are pivotal for the mechanisms which maintain all forms of life. To
name just a few processes, photosynthesis, respiration, and homeostasis could not
occur with necessary speed, without enzymes. Enzymes are proteins, and their
importance in nature is indicated in human medicine by the fact that the mutation
of one single base pair, leading to the disruption of the expression of just one
protein-enzyme, can result in disabling metabolic disorders, or even death of the
neonate. The power of these natural, chemical catalysts can be harnessed for
industrial purposes; in the context of this chapter, most specifically for improving
the speed and outcome of hydrolytic, digestive processes.
The definition of catalysis is to enable a reaction to proceed at an increased
speed than it would otherwise. All processes catalyzed by enzymes would occur
in their absence but at a much reduced rate. These activities may be synthetic,
hydrolytic, or transformative, but at such a slow rate that it would not be of any
value for the process under catalysis, whether it be to sustain life or for industrial
conversion purposes. From the beginning of the reaction to the end, there is
energy released which drives the reaction forwards, but in order to initiate the
reaction a certain amount of energy has to be provided, the activation energy, in
order to move the substrate from its current and probably stable state to a transi-
tion state. At this point, the forward reaction produces the product and the reverse
takes it back to the substrate. The rate at which a reaction would proceed in the
absence of the enzyme is dependent on the energy released in the conversion of
the substrate to the product, and the activation energy needed to reach the transi-
tion state. Some reactions are incredibly slow due to a very high activation
energy, which can also be related to how stable the substrate is, and a marginal
release in energy in the whole reaction. In such cases, enzymes can speed up the
reaction by an almost unimaginable rate. For example, the decarboxylation of oro-
tidine-50 -phosphate to uridine monophosphate (a step in the pyrimidine synthetic
pathway) would normally take millions of years, but in the presence of orotidine-
50 -phosphate decarboxylase this takes place in milliseconds. This is the most
extreme example of what enzymes are capable of, as it accelerates the uncata-
lyzed process by a factor of 1017.
To put this into perspective, this is greater than the number of seconds that the
universe has been in existence. Clearly most enzymes are not responsible for such
extreme degrees of acceleration of a reaction, and indeed such feats would be
xxvii
xxviii Introduction
problematic for most synthetic pathways where more than one enzyme is
involved.
All enzymes in nature do not work in isolation, but as part of a co-ordinated
process, or pathway, such that the product of one enzyme may become the sub-
strate of another. Evolution has resulted in pathways that employ multiple
enzymes in the transformation, synthesis, or hydrolysis of compounds into the
desired outcome, and the successful integration of many if not all of the individ-
ual pathways involved in the process of life means that each process needs to be
aware of the overall status and needs of the cell and indeed the whole being,
whether it is a microbe or mammal. Thus each enzymatic pathway, which may
involve tens of individual enzymes, has to be controlled in its overall rate and be
able to change its speed if circumstances change and alter the requirements for its
product. As a result, the enzymes which have evolved in nature are adapted to
catalyze a reaction under the specific circumstances/conditions under which the
organism lives, and as stated above, the rate at which it catalyzes the reaction
will depend on the needs of the organism. Consequently, maximum speed of the
reaction may not be the specific priority of a given enzyme if its involvement in a
pathway is not a critical step. Most if not all enzymes are up- or downregulated
by compounds which may or may not be related to the reaction it catalyzes in
order to enable co-ordination of the whole pathway into all other pathways in the
cell. This means that such enzymes may be optimally adapted to a specific set of
conditions—temperature, pH, or ionic strength, for example, which is optimal for
the organism. Such conditions may be significantly divergent from those in which
industry currently employs enzymes. The first and most obvious difference is that
most enzymes employed in industry are used in single-step processes, and as a
result there is no need for integration of the enzyme into up- or downstream enzy-
matic processes. Secondly, the conditions under which industrial enzymes are
employed are often hugely divergent from those from whence the enzyme origi-
nated, thus there is often significant room for improvement in their catalytic prop-
erties. Much of the development of enzymes in the feed or food industry has in
fact focused on adapting them to function optimally under the conditions of the
industrial process.
Enzymes can be categorized into six classes, as defined by the International
Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Table 1). This is useful for
nomenclature but also to describe the types of reactions catalyzed by enzymes.
As modern day industry evolved, it was noted that specific reactions may be
better suited to include, or indeed be based upon, an enzymological rather than
physicochemical process, and as a result the search for candidates began. In the
beginning, microbial or organ-based extraction methods of the enzyme of interest
were entirely dependent on the enzyme of interest being present in sufficient
quantities to be of economic interest. Evolutionary pressures and selection techni-
ques used in microbial fermentation processes were rudimentary, but nevertheless
progress was made in evolving candidate enzyme characteristics to that they
suited the industrial process needs more so than those of the organism.
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Rule 4. “They desire they may understand the wiles of Satan, and
grow out of love with his suggestions and temtations.”
Rule 5. “That they may fall upon some better course to improve
their time than formerly.”
Rule 15. “They will wear their haire comely, as the English do, and
whosoever shall offend herein shall pay four shillings.”
Rule 23. “They shall not disguise themselves in their mournings as
formerly, nor shall they keep a great noyse by howling.”
Rule 24. “The old ceremony of a maide walking alone and living
apart so many days, [fine] twenty shillings.”
Page 53, note 1. Shepard, p. 9.
Page 54, note 1. Wilson’s Letter, 1651.
Page 54, note 2. News from America, p. 22.
Page 54, note 3. Winthrop, vol. ii., p. 2.
Page 55, note 1. Hutchinson, vol. i., p. 90.
Page 55, note 2. Hutchinson, vol. i., p. 112.
Page 55, note 3. Winthrop, vol. ii., p. 21.
Page 55, note 4. Hutchinson, vol. i., p. 94.
Page 55, note 5. Bulkeley’s Gospel Covenant, p. 209.
Page 55, note 6. Winthrop, vol. ii., p. 94.
Page 56, note 1. Gospel Covenant, p. 301.
Page 57, note 1. Shattuck, p. 45.
Page 57, note 2. Hutchinson, vol. i., p. 172.
Page 57, note 3. See his instructions from the Commissioners, his
narrative, and the Commissioners’ letter to him, in Hutchinson’s
Collection, pp. 261-270.
Page 58, note 1. Hutchinson’s History, vol. i., p. 254.
Page 58, note 2. Hubbard’s Indian Wars, p. 119, ed. 1801.
Mr. Charles H. Walcott, in his Concord in the Colonial Period
(Estes & Lauriat, Boston, 1884), gives a very interesting account of
the Brookfield fight.
Page 58, note 3. Hubbard, p. 201.
Page 59, note 1. Hubbard, p. 185.
Page 59, note 2. Hubbard, p. 245.
Page 60, note 1. Shattuck, p. 55.
Page 60, note 2. Hubbard, p. 260.
Page 61, note 1. Neal’s History of New England, vol. i., p. 321.
Page 61, note 2. Mather, Magnalia Christi, vol. i., p. 363.
Page 61, note 3. “Tradition has handed down the following
anecdote. A consultation among the Indian chiefs took place about
this time on the high lands in Stow, and, as they cast their eyes
towards Sudbury and Concord, a question arose which they should
attack first. The decision was made to attack the former. One of the
principal chiefs said: ‘We no prosper if we go to Concord—the Great
Spirit love that people—the evil spirit tell us not to go—they have a
great man there—he great pray.’ The Rev. Edward Bulkeley was
then minister of the town, and his name and distinguished character
were known even to the red men of the forest.”—Shattuck’s History,
p. 59, note.
Page 61, note 4. On this occasion the name of Hoar, since
honored in Concord through several generations, came to the front.
John Hoar, the first practitioner of law in Concord, an outspoken man
of sturdy independence, who, for uttering complaints that justice was
denied him in the courts, had been made to give bonds for good
behavior and “disabled to plead any cases but his oune in this
jurisdiction,” who had been fined £10 for saying that “the Blessing
which his Master Bulkeley pronounced in dismissing the publique
Assembly was no more than vane babling,” and was twice fined for
non-attendance at public worship, proved to be the only man in town
who was willing to take charge of the Praying Indians of Nashobah,
whom the General Court ordered moved to Concord during Philip’s
War. The magistrates who had persecuted him had to turn to him,
and he made good provision on his own place for the comfort and
safe-keeping of these unfortunates, and their employment, when
public opinion was directed against them with the cruelty of fear.
Soon, however, Captain Mosley, who had been secretly sent for by
some citizens, came with soldiers into the meeting-house,
announced to the congregation that he had heard that “there were
some heathen in town committed to one Hoar, who, he was
informed, were a trouble and disquiet to them;” therefore, if the
people desired it, he would remove them to Boston. No one made
objection, so he went to Mr. Hoar’s house, counted the Indians and
set a guard, Hoar vigorously protesting. He came next day; Hoar
bravely refused to give them up, so Mosley removed them by
violence and carried the Indians to Deer Island, where they suffered
much during the winter. See Walcott’s Concord in the Colonial
Period.
Page 62, note 1. Sprague’s Centennial Ode.
Page 62, note 2. Shattuck, chap. iii. Walcott, chap. iii.
Page 63, note 1. Hutchinson’s Collection, p. 484.
Page 63, note 2. Hutchinson’s Collection, pp. 543, 548, 557, 566.
Page 63, note 3. Hutchinson’s History, vol. i., p. 336.
The month of April has been fateful for Concord, especially its
nineteenth day. On that day the military company under Lieutenant
Heald marched to Boston to take part in the uprising of the freemen
of the colony against Andros. On that same day, in 1775, the minute-
men and militia of Concord, promptly reinforced by the soldiers of
her daughter and sister towns, marched down to the guarded North
Bridge and returned the fire of the Royal troops in the opening battle
of the Revolution. Again on the nineteenth of April, 1861, the
“Concord Artillery” (so-called, although then a company of the Fifth
Infantry, M. V. M.) left the village for the front in the War of the
Rebellion; and yet again in the last days of April, 1898, the same
company, then, as now, attached to the Sixth Regiment, M. V. M.,
marched from the village green to bear its part in the Spanish War.
Page 64, note 1. Town Records.
Page 64, note 2. The following minutes from the Town Records in
1692 may serve as an example:—
“John Craggin, aged about 63 years, and Sarah his wife, aet.
about 63 years, do both testify upon oath that about 2 years ago
John Shepard, sen. of Concord, came to our house in Obourne, to
treat with us, and give us a visit, and carried the said Sary Craggin to
Concord with him, and there discoursed us in order to a marriage
between his son, John Shepard, jun. and our daughter, Eliz. Craggin,
and, for our incouragement, and before us, did promise that, upon
the consummation of the said marriage, he, the said John Shepard,
sen. would give to his son, John Shepard, jun. the one half of his
dwelling house, and the old barn, and the pasture before the barn;
the old plow-land, and the old horse, when his colt was fit to ride,
and his old oxen, when his steers were fit to work. All this he
promised upon marriage as above said, which marriage was
consummated upon March following, which is two years ago, come
next March. Dated Feb. 25, 1692. Taken on oath before me. Wm.
Johnson.”
Page 64, note 3. Town Records, July, 1698.
Page 64, note 4. Records, Nov. 1711.
Page 65, note 1. Records, May, 1712.
Page 66, note 1. Records, 1735.
Page 66, note 2. Whitfield in his journal wrote: “About noon I
reached Concord. Here I preached to some thousands in the open
air; and comfortable preaching it was. The hearers were sweetly
melted down.... The minister of the town being, I believe, a true child
of God, I chose to stay all night at his house that we might rejoice
together. The Lord was with us. The Spirit of the Lord came upon me
and God gave me to wrestle with him for my friends, especially those
then with me.... Brother B—s, the minister, broke into floods of tears,
and we had reason to cry out it was good for us to be here.”
Page 67, note 1. Church Records, July, 1792.
Page 67, note 2. The Rev. Daniel Bliss has left the name of having
been an earnest, good man, evidently emotional. His zealous and
impassioned preaching gave offence to some of the cooler and more
conservative clergy, and indeed bred discord in the church of
Concord. The “aggrieved brethren” withdrew, and, for want of a
church, held public worship at a tavern where was the sign of a black
horse, hence were called “the Black Horse Church.” Their complaints
preferred against Mr. Bliss resulted in councils which drew in most of
the churches of Middlesex into their widening vortex. Yet he
remained the honored pastor of the town until his death. His
daughter Phebe married the young William Emerson, his successor;
he was therefore Mr. Emerson’s great-grandfather.
Page 67, note 3. Town Records.
Page 70, note 1. Town Records.
Page 71, note 1. Town Records.
Page 71, note 2. The spirited protest of this County Convention,
presided over by Hon. James Prescott of Groton, is given in full in
Shattuck’s History, pp. 82-87.
Page 72, note 1. General Gage, the Governor, having refused to
convene the General Court at Salem, the Provincial Congress of
delegates from the towns of Massachusetts was called by
conventions of the various counties to meet at Concord, October 11,
1774. The delegates assembled in the meeting-house, and
organized, with John Hancock as President, and Benjamin Lincoln
as Secretary. Called together to maintain the rights of the people,
this Congress assumed the government of the province, and by its
measures prepared the way for the Revolution.
Page 72, note 2. This eloquent sermon to the volunteers of 1775,
still preserved in MS., is very interesting. The young minister shows
them the dignity of their calling, warns them of the besetting sins of
New England soldiery, explains to them the invasion of their rights
and that they are not rebels, tells them that he believes their fathers
foresaw the evil day and did all in their power to guard the infant
state from encroachments of unconstitutional power, and implores
the sons to be true to their duty to their posterity. He fully admits the
utter gloom of the prospect, humanly considered: would Heaven hold
him innocent, he would counsel submission, but as an honest man
and servant of Heaven he dare not do so, and with great spirit bids
his injured countrymen “Arise! and plead even with the sword, the
firelock and the bayonet, the birthright of Englishmen ... and if God
does not help, it will be because your sins testify against you,
otherwise you may be assured.”
Page 74, note 1. Journal, July, 1835. “It is affecting to see the old
man’s [Thaddeus Blood] memory taxed for facts occurring 60 years
ago at Concord fight. ‘It is hard to bring them up;’ he says, ‘the truth
never will be known.’ The Doctor [Ripley], like a keen hunter,
unrelenting, follows him up and down, barricading him with
questions. Yet cares little for the facts the man can tell, but much for
the confirmation of the printed History. ‘Leave me, leave me to
repose.’”
Thaddeus Blood, who was only twenty years old at the time of
Concord fight, later became a schoolmaster, hence was always
known as “Master Blood.” He was one of the Concord company
stationed at Hull, in 1776, which took part in the capture of
Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell and his battalion of the 71st (Frazer)
Highlanders as they sailed into Boston Harbor, not being aware of
the evacuation of the town. They were confined at Concord until their
exchange. See Sir Archibald Campbell of Inverneill, sometime
Prisoner of War in the Jail at Concord, Massachusetts. By Charles
H. Walcott, Boston, 1898.
Page 74, note 2. In his poem in memory of his brother Edward,
written by the riverside near the battle-ground, Mr. Emerson alluded
to
These lines from “Voluntaries” in the Poems, and the stanza which
there follows them, are recalled by this passage.
Page 106, note 1. Granville Sharp (1734-1813) was a broad-
minded scholar and determined philanthropist. He left the study of
law to go into the ordnance office, which he left, when the American
Revolution came on, disapproving of the course of the government.
In the case of one of the slaves whom he defended, the Lord Mayor
discharged the negro, but his master would not give him up. The
case then went before the Court of Kings Bench, and the twelve
judges decided in 1772 that a man could not be held in, or
transported from, England. In June, 1787, Sharp with Clarkson and
ten others, nine of whom were Quakers, formed a committee “for
effecting the abolition of the slave trade;” Sharp was chairman.
Defeated in Parliament in 1788 and 1789, they were joined by Pitt
and Fox in 1790. In 1793 the Commons passed an act for gradual
abolition of the trade, which was rejected by the Peers. This
occurred again in 1795 and 1804. In 1806, the Fox and Grenville
Ministry brought forward abolition of the trade as a government
measure. It was carried in 1807. Then the enemies of slavery began
to strive for its gradual abolition throughout the British dominions,
Clarkson, Wilberforce and Buxton being the principal leaders. The
course of events, however, showed that immediate emancipation
would be a better measure. The government brought this forward in
1823, modified by an apprenticeship system. The bill with this
feature and some compensation to owners was passed in 1833.
Page 108, note 1. In the essay on Self-Reliance Mr. Emerson said:
“An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man; as Monachism,
of the Hermit Antony; the Reformation, of Luther; Quakerism, of Fox;
Methodism, of Wesley; Abolition, of Clarkson.”
Page 112, note 1. The “prædials” seem to have been the slaves
born into captivity, as distinguished from imported slaves.
Page 115, note 1. Emancipation in the West Indies: A Six Months’
Tour in Antigua, Barbadoes and Jamaica, in the year 1837. J. A.
Thome and J. H. Kimball, New York, 1838.
Page 120, note 1. This was very soon after the coronation of the
young Queen Victoria, which occurred in the previous year.
Page 125, note 1. “All things are moral, and in their boundless
changes have an unceasing reference to spiritual nature. Therefore
is nature glorious with form, color and motion; that every globe in the
remotest heaven, every chemical change from the rudest crystal up
to the laws of life ... every animal function from the sponge up to
Hercules, shall hint or thunder to man the laws of right and wrong,
and echo the Ten Commandments.”—Nature, Addresses and
Lectures, p. 40. See also the last sentence in “Prudence,” Essays,
First Series.
Page 131, note 1. “For he [a ruler] is the minister of God to thee
for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth
not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to
execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” Epistle to the Romans, xiii.
4.
Page 132, note 1. The cause for Mr. Emerson’s indignation was
great and recent. His honored townsman, Samuel Hoar, Esq., sent
by the State of Massachusetts as her commissioner to South
Carolina to investigate the seizures, imprisonments, punishments,
and even sale of colored citizens of Massachusetts who had
committed no crime, had been expelled with threats of violence from
the city of Charleston. (See “Samuel Hoar,” in Lectures and
Biographical Sketches.)
Page 133, note 1.
“Boston,” Poems.
Page 146, note 1. In the early version of the “Boston” poem were
these lines:—
WAR
In the winter and early spring of 1838, the American Peace
Society held a course of lectures in Boston. This lecture was the
seventh in the course. Mr. Alcott wrote in his diary at that time:—
“I heard Emerson’s lecture on Peace, as the closing discourse of a
series delivered at the Odeon before the American Peace Society....
After the lecture I saw Mr. Garrison, who is at this time deeply
interested in the question of Peace, as are many of the meekest and
noblest souls amongst us. He expressed his great pleasure in the
stand taken by Mr. Emerson and his hopes in him as a man of the
new age. This great topic has been brought before the general mind
as a direct consequence of the agitation of the abolition of slavery.”
The lecture was printed in 1849 Æsthetic Papers, edited by Miss
Elizabeth P. Peabody.
Although the chronicles of the campaigns and acts of prowess of
the masterly soldiers were always attractive reading to Mr. Emerson,
—much more acts of patriotic devotion in the field,—and he was by
no means committed as a non-resistant, he saw that war had been a
part of evolution, and that its evils might pave the way for good, as
flowers spring up next year on a field of carnage. He knew that
evolution required an almost divine patience, yet his good hope was
strengthened by the signs of the times, and he desired to hasten the
great upward step in civilization.
It is evident from his words and course of action during the
outrages upon the peaceful settlers of Kansas, and when Sumter
was fired upon and Washington threatened, that he recognized that
the hour had not yet come. He subscribed lavishly from his limited
means for the furnishing Sharp’s rifles to the “Free State men.” In the
early days of the War of the Rebellion he visited Charlestown Navy-
Yard to see the preparations, and said, “Ah! sometimes gunpowder
smells good.” In the opening of his address at Tufts College, in July,
1861, he said, “The brute noise of cannon has a most poetic echo in
these days, as instrument of the primal sentiments of humanity.”
Several speeches included in this volume show that at that crisis his
feeling was, as he had said of the forefathers’ “deed of blood” at
Concord Bridge,—