JOURNAL 



OF THE 



WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Vol. 11 August 19, 1921 No. 14 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY.— C/zem^Va/ structure and phys- 

 iological action.'^ C. L. Alsberg, Bureau of Chemistry. 



The subject matter which I propose to present to you tonight 

 contains nothing essentially new to the pharmacologist. It deals, 

 however, with a field of research that, while of the greatest impor- 

 tance to the welfare of mankind, is still very much in flux. However, a 

 subject in flux is more interesting than one that is in a static state with 

 all phenomena accurately ticketed and labeled. It still permits the 

 exercise of the imagination. Hence what I have to offer to you tonight 

 must be, in the main, a series of speculations and of observations none 

 too well coordinated. Only a part of it has found its way into the 

 general text-books, and this is my excuse for the selection of my 

 subject. - 



Paracelsus wrote many centuries ago, "The real object of chemistry- 

 is. not to make gold, but to prepare medicine." Schmiedeberg has 

 defined the aim of the science of pharmacology as the production of 

 physiological reactions with chemical reagents. The pharmacologist 

 hopes, therefore, to contribute toward the solution of some of the 

 problems of biology by using chemical stimuli as the physiologist 

 uses physical ones. Some pharmacologists have believed that the 

 reaction of living things to chemical stimuli is necessaril}^ the result of 

 a chemical reaction between the stimulating chemical and some sub- 

 stance in the cell stimulated. The hope has been expressed that 

 eventually it wiU be possible to write the equations for these reactions 

 as for any other chemical reaction. However, this hope is very very 

 far from realization, and perhaps never will be realized because, as we 

 shaU see, it represents far too simple a conception of the matter. 

 Indeed, almost the only case that occurs to me in which it is possible 



^ Address of the retiring President of the Washington Academy of Sciences. Presented 

 at a joint meeting of the Academy and the Chemical Society on January 20, 

 1921. Received July 20, 1921. 



2 L. Spiegel. Chemical constitution and physiological action. Translated, with addi- 

 tions, from the German, by C. Luedeking and A. C. Boylston (D. Van Nostrand Co., 

 New York, 1915). 



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