Kinetic, spectral, and other studies establish that hydroxamic acids bind reversibly to active-site nickel ion in jack bean urease. Equilibrium ultracentrifugation studies establish that the molecular weight of native urease is 590 000 ± 30 000 while that of the subunit formed in 6 M guanidinium chloride in the presence of β-mercaptoethanol is ~95 000. Essentially the same subunit molecular weight (~93 000) is found by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate, subsequent to denaturation in a guanidinium chloride – β-mercaptoethanol system at various temperatures. Coupled with an equivalent weight of 96 600 for binding of the inhibitors acetohydroxamic acid and phosphoramidate, these results establish securely that urease is a hexamer with one active site per 96 600-dalton subunit. Consistent values for the equivalent weight are obtained by a routine spectrophotometric titration of the active site of freshly prepared urease with trans-cinnamoylhydroxamic acid. General equations are derived which describe spectrophotometric titrations of binding sites of any enzyme with a reversible inhibitor. These equations allow the evaluation of the difference spectrum of the protein–inhibitor complex even when the binding sites cannot readily be saturated with the inhibitor or vice versa.