Beard, On the Occurrence of Dextro-rotatory Albumins in Organic Nature. j_(|<) 



By the researches of earlier years antithetic alternation of 

 generations as the law of the developmental cycle of animal life 

 had been placed upon a firm basis of observation. With the facts 

 now recorded a beginning has been made in supplying this law 

 of antithetic alternation of generations with a foundation in stereo- 

 chemistry. 



Upon what foundation do the current orthodox conceptions of 

 the nature of the above-mentioned diseases rest? Certainly, as 

 little upon a chemical as upon a biological basis. The line of work 

 I took up four and twenty years ago may have been - - may even 

 now be "heretical", regarded in the light of common beliefs 

 then and now current. But the error was, and is, in the current 

 beliefs and theories, and not in the "true theories" or general 

 principles, to which patient research during these years has led me 

 irresistibly. For, as Pasteur well said, "The characteristic of 

 erroneous theories is, that they are never able to present new facts; 

 and every time a fact of this nature is discovered, in order to take 

 it into account, they are obliged to graft a new hypothesis upon 

 the old ones. The characteristic of true theories, on the contrary, 

 is of being the expression of the facts themselves, of being com- 

 manded and dominated by them, of being able to foresee new facts 

 certainly, because these by their nature are linked up with the 

 former in a word, the characteristic of these theories is 



fecundity 17 )." 



It is a long time since 1860, and the fundamental discoveries 

 of Pasteur 18 ), published in that year, discoveries, relating to what 

 he termed "enantiomorphism", have had a curious subsequent history. 

 While, on the one hand, it would, perhaps, not be too much to 

 say, that their influence upon the progress of chemistry had been 

 unbounded, their import in Physiology and allied sciences, dealing 

 with the problems of living things, such as Embryology, Zoology, 

 and Botany, would not appear to have been recognised hitherto. 

 It is scarcely credible now, that so long ago as 1860 Pasteur 

 said "I have, in fact, set up a theory of molecular asymmetry, one 

 of the most important and wholly surprising chapters of science, 

 which opens up a new, distant, but definite, horizon for physio- 

 logy" 19 ). While admiration of Pasteur's "prevision" to use 

 his own word must be expressed, one cannot refrain from 



17) Vallery-Radot, Rene. "La Vie de Pasteur", Paris 1901, p. 352. 

 As elsewhere stated already, what Pasteur termed "a true theory" I identify as 

 "a general principle". 



18) Pasteur, Louis. On the Asymmetry of Naturally Occurring Organic 

 Compounds, in: G.M.Richardson's "The Foundations of Stereochemistry, New 

 York, American Book Company, 1901 , loc. cit., p. 25, 



19) Op. cit., p. 33. 



