26o Biochemistry in the College of Liberal Arts [Dec. 



than curative. We have discovered a new truth in the old adage, 

 " An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of eure." In olden times 

 a surgeon washed his hands after an Operation ; now he washes them 

 before! Insurance companies are providing nurses for their sick 

 poHcy holders, a well man being of more value to them than a sick 

 man. In the crowded city districts mothers are given instruction 

 about the care of their babies and milk suited to the need of each 

 child is provided at small cost. These precautions, education and 

 proper diet, have decreased the Infant mortality tremendously. 



There is a carefully regulated diet for the invalid. But what 

 about the well man? Does he not need the right food, food suited 

 to his occupation, to maintain him in fit condition in order that he 

 may keep for years at the point of maximum efficiency? Nature has 

 given each of us a wide margin. Modern surgery removes organs 

 and transplants organs and yet active life continues. We can best 

 conserve life by conserving the energy which comes from the food 

 we eat and the air we breathe. We have opened our windows and 

 are less afraid of a draft than we are of breathing vitiated air, but 

 we have not yet very generally given thought to the food we eat. 

 As long as it is cooked according to familiär Standards, we accept it. 

 President Jesse said in 1905 that "women are the prime factors in 

 Society and should realize that life for themselves and others rests 

 upon a physical basis and that life and health depend in large degree 

 upon the choice of food, the preparation of it, household sanitation 

 and household economics." We have not universally accepted this 

 point of view. The attitude of the ordinary individual is well illus- 

 trated by a discussion between two students on the relation of chem- 

 istry and zoölogy. *'Why," said one, "there is no relation. 

 Zoölogy is life and chemistry is atoms ! " We need to convince 

 people that chemistry is life, that it is fundamental and that it 

 enters into all the reactions of living. Panama has become a health 

 resort through the agency of the scientist ! 



The chemistry of foods, the chemistry of life, animal and vege- 

 table — biochemistry to use the new term — is very complex and it 

 was not possible to teach it as a science until organic chemistry, 

 pure and simple, had done its work of analysis and synthesis. But 

 Pasteur, Fischer, Kossei, Ehrlich, to mention only a few, have 



