DAVID NACHMANSOHN AND IRWIN B. WILSON 



be considered to be the precursor of the Currents in Biochemical 

 Research (11), the biochemistry of the intermediary metabolism 

 associated with muscular contraction was far advanced. Most 

 of the enzymatic steps of the glycolytic cycle had been estab- 

 lished, with the exception of the so-called "coupling reaction," 

 the mechanism of which was elucidated in 1939 by Otto Warburg 

 (31). The energy released by the hydrolysis of ATP was as- 

 sumed to be the primary source of energy for the contractile 

 process. Although the study of the pathways of intermediary 

 metabolism was in the forefront of that period, in addition quite 

 a few correlations had been established between chemical reac- 

 tions and events recorded on living muscle fibers by a variety of 

 physical methods. 



At that period, studies of structural muscle proteins, carried 

 out mainly in the laboratories of H. H. Weber and Edsall, were 

 still at an early stage. During the following decade, however, 

 greatly stimulated by the observations of Engelhardt and 

 Lyubimova (8), the investigation of the structural proteins and 

 their interaction with ATP, i.e., the elementary processes of 

 muscular contraction, moved into the center of interest of muscle 

 physiologists. The properties of these proteins and the molecular 

 forces affecting the contractile process and their interdependence 

 with structure is today the most active field in muscle research 

 (32). 



Although muscular activity has been the most thoroughly 

 studied problem and offers the most dramatic example of the 

 progress in our understanding of the chemistry of cellular func- 

 tion, advance on similar lines was achieved in respect to other 

 functions, such as vision, renal secretion, and bioluminescence. 

 In this paper some trends of the biochemistry of nerve function 

 will be discussed, but it is obvious that they reflect similar trends 

 in various other fields. 



Biochemistry of Nerve Activity 



In spite of all progress achieved in the biochemistry of mus- 

 cular activity at the time of the appearance of the Perspectives, 



630 



