ON THE RELATION OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY 



TO HOME ECONOMICS^ 



WILLIAM J. GIES 



Biological chemistry, considered from the Standpoint o£ its 

 greatest usefulness, is primarily chemical biology. Its foundations 

 are physics, chemistry and biology. Biological chemistry, as a 

 science, is chemical knowledge of biological substances and pro- 

 cesses, i. e., substances that commonly enter, or that are produced 

 in, or are derived from, organisms; and processes that ordinarily 

 affect, or that occur in, or are modified by, organisms. Biological 

 chemistry, as an art, is fundamentally chemical in method and 

 primarily biological in purpose. The biological chemist seeks to 

 determine by chemical means the nature of biological phenomena; 

 he does not attempt to establish purely chemical laws through 

 biological agencies. 



Among the leading subdivisions of biological chemistry are 

 physiological chemistry, pathological chemistry, pharmacology, 

 agricultural chemistry, botanical chemistry, and bacteriological 

 chemistry. Physiological chemistry is the chemical branch of 

 physiology, i. e., the chemistry of substances and processes and con- 

 ditions pertaining to healthy organisms. Physiological chemistry 

 is physical chemistry, inorganic chemistry and organic chemistry 

 applied to physiology. 



The substances that engage the attention of the physiological 

 chemist are very numerous in kind. They ränge in diversity of 

 molecular characters from the very simplest inorganic salts like 

 sodium Chloride, to the most complex organic Compounds like 

 nucleoproteins. The processes that form a large portion of the 

 subject-matter of physiological chemistry are not only numerous 



*An abstract of the official report of an extemporaneous address, and the 

 ensuing discussion, at the Boston Meeting of the American Home Economics 

 Association. Reprinted, with the consent of the editor, from the Journal of 

 Home Economics for December, 1910 (volume II, pp. 619-625). 



42 



