THE MEETING OF THE SECTION OF BIOLOGICAL 



CHEMISTRY OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL 



SOCIETY, AT INDIANAPOLIS, JUNE 



28 TO JULY I, 1911 



Proceedings Reported by THE Chairman, 

 CARL L. ALS BERG 



L ON THE ORGANIZATION OF A DIVISION OF BIOLOGICAL 

 CHEMISTRY OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 



For some years there have been occasional meetings of the 

 Biological Section of the American Chemical Society. Professor 

 Bancroft, President of the Society in 1910-11, decided to attempt 

 to put the Section on a firmer basis with a view eventually to 

 organizing it into a Division. The writer was asked to take the 

 chairmanship of the section for the meeting in MinneapoHs, De- 

 cember, 1910. 



The question arose whether there was a need for such a section, 

 since the American Society of Biological Chemists, a very suc- 

 cessful Organization, was already in the field. That a section would 

 serve any useful purpose seemed open to doubt. Indeed it seemed 

 possible that a biological section in the American Chemical Society 

 would do more härm than good, by weakening the independent 

 Society. However, mature deliberation led to the conviction that 

 such a section might well serve a very useful purpose without in the 

 least competing with or injuring the independent Society. The 

 members of the Society of Biological Chemists are chiefly medical 

 men, or at least, men who hold positions on medical faculties. The 

 natural result is that the main interest of the Society is along the. 

 ünes of mammalian physiology. This, however, is but one of the 

 fields of biochemistry. The chemistry and chemical physiology of 

 plants, fungi, bacteria, and certain pure science fields of agriculture, 

 fermentation chemistry, and the like, are not at present receiving the 

 attention they deserve. Nevertheless there is an increasing number 



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