14 



FUNDAMENTALS OF 



OXIDATION AND 



REDUCTION 



LEONOR MICHAELIS, member emeritus, the rockefeller 



INSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH 



/ 



P"N ATTEMPTING to define the essential concepts involved 

 in a problem, generally it is found that, because of the 

 flexibility and, often, ambiguity of language, a definition cannot be 

 formulated with perfect clarity. Nature is not so constructed 

 that one can classify all its subject matter within a finite number of 

 distinctly circumscribed terms. A great deal of confusion has arisen, 

 and will henceforth arise again, from the fact that an author may use 

 a given term according to one definition, and then during the dis- 

 cussion consciously or unconsciously forget that definition. Further- 

 more, it is a frequent fate of a definition that it be based on an assump- 

 tion which later appears to be either erroneous or, at least, unsuitable. 

 If the term, as commonly happens, is redefined according to the change 

 in the underlying fundamental concepts, the new definition is likely 

 to be in conflict with the older one. 



A typical instance of the flexibility of a concept is the term 

 oxidation, and its reverse, reduction. Originally, oxidation meant 

 combination with oxygen; the combination of hydrogen with oxygen 

 to form water is the prototype of oxidation in this sense. According 

 to this definition, the combination of hemoglobin with oxygen to form 

 oxyhemoglobin should be the simplest, purest, and most unambiguous 



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