THE WORK OF EMIL FISCHER AND 



HIS SCHOOL ON THE CHEMISTRY 



OF THE PROTEINS 



By R. H. ADERS PLIMMER, D.Sc. 



Assistant for Physiological Chemistry, University College, London 



The Proximate Constituents 



The remarkable researches of Emil Fischer upon the chemistry 

 of the proteins during the last few years, which are of no less 

 magnitude than his classical work upon the Carbohydrates and 

 the Purine Compounds, are of such great importance that it 

 seems desirable to give a somewhat detailed account of these 

 investigations and to indicate the methods by which Fischer 

 has arrived at his results. 



Commencing with a minute study of the amino acids, which 

 result in such variety as the products of hydrolysis of the 

 proteins, Fischer next turned his attention to their separation 

 as they result by hydrolysis, whereby a new method was 

 perfected, which is now known as the ester method ; and finally 

 he has made extraordinary progress in the most important 

 stage of synthesis. 



Fischer has lately published the results of his work from 

 1899 to 1906 in book form, the opening pages of which consist 

 of a lecture delivered to the Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft 

 in Berlin in January 1906. His researches are divided into 

 three parts : 



I. The Amino Acids. 

 II. The Hydrolysis of the Proteins. 



III. The Polypeptides. 



It has been known for many years from the work of Kiihne, 

 Neumeister, Chittenden, Schulze, Hlasiwetz, Habermann and 

 others that the amino acids are the keystones of the protein 

 molecule. It will make it easier to follow Fischer's subsequent 

 work if we here give a list of the amino acids which have been 



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