Stereochemistry Applied to Biology 113 



STEREOCHEMISTRY APPLIED TO BIOLOGY. 



No. 116. REICHERT, EDWARD T., and AMOS P. BROWN. The Differentiation and 

 Specificity of Corresponding Proteins and other Vital Substances in 

 Relation to Biological Classification and Organic Evolution: The Crys- 

 tallography of Hemoglobins. Quarto, xix-f338 pages, 100 plates, 411 

 text figures. In cloth binding. Published 1909. Price $9.00. 



This work is designed to show that corresponding proteins and other organic vital 

 substances differ in chemical constitution, and that these differences are definitely 

 related to genera, species, etc., and thus establish a principle which may prove of 

 great importance in the explanation of heredity, mutations, the influences of food 

 and environment, the differentiation of sex, and in other problems of biology, nor- 

 mal and abnormal. Differences in corresponding substances are shown to offer a new 

 and important method in the study of the relationships of genera and species and 

 in general to indicate extremely important applications of stereochemistry to proto- 

 plasmic processes and products. 



The volume embodies the results of the detailed crystallographic studies of the 

 hemoglobins of 107 species mostly mammals, including representatives of Pisces, 

 Batrachia, Aves, Marsupiala, Edentata, Sirenia, Ungulata, Rodentia, Otariidae, 

 Phocidae, Mustelidae, Procyonidae, Ursidse, Canidae, Felidae, Viyeridae, Insectivora, 

 Chiroptera, and Primates ; also a considerable amount of incidental matter, em- 

 bracing a consideration of the alliance between chlorophyll and hemoglobin; the dis- 

 tribution of hemoglobin, hemocyanin, and other respiratory substances among the 

 animal kingdom; the general chemical and physical characters and specificities of the 

 hemoglobins of different species; the specificity of the blood, as regards its various 

 constituents, in relation to zoological classification ; method for preparing, examining, 

 measuring, and differentiating the hemoglobin crystals from different species, etc. 



Exceptional crystallographic interest and value are attached to the results of this 

 research because chiefly of the hemoglobins constituting an extraordinary isomor- 

 phous series; of the description not only of almost every known kind of twin, but 

 also of forms of twinning entirely new and of unusual interest; and of the profuse- 

 ness and accuracy with which the various crystalline forms have been illustrated by 

 line drawings and photomicrographs. 



No. 173. REICHERT, EDWARD T. The Differentiation and Specificity of Starches in 

 relation to Genera, Species, etc.: Stereochemistry applied to Proto^ 

 plasmic Processes and Products, and as a strictly Scientific Basis for 

 the Classification of Plants and Animals. Quarto, in two parts. Pub- 

 lished 1913. In cloth binding. Price $16.00. 



Part I. The Starch-Substance and Starch-Grain. Pages i-xvii+ 1-342, 102 plates 



containing 612 photomicrographs charts A-J. 



Part II. The Differentiation and Specificity of Starches. Pages i-xvi 1+343-900 



and 400 charts. 



This research is in the nature of a preliminary investigation and is supplemen- 

 tary and complementary to Publication No. 116. Previous investigators found that 

 starch-grains exist in a considerable variety of forms, and that while the histological 

 peculiarities of a given starch may sometimes be characteristic of the species or 

 genus it would be hazardous to depend upon them generally as indicating the plant- 

 source. In this research it has been demonstrated that starches from different 

 plants vary in their physical and physico-chemical properties, and that the differences 

 are distinctive of the plant and can be plotted out in the form of reaction-curves 

 which give pictures, as it were, by means of which varieties, species, and genera can 

 be distinguished and classified. 



In Part I, the first chapter gives, among various topics presented, a brief state- 

 ment of the crystalline nature and of the conditions which influence the form of 

 the starch-grain, with the object of showing that histological differences do not 

 necessarily imply any inherent differences in the constitution of the starch per se. 

 Especial attention is given to the recent developments of stereochemistry, many 



