240 Biochcmical Research at Vineland, N. J . [Jan. 



logical mental action on the one band, and the physical condition 

 of the brain and body on the other. We will not discuss this propo- 

 sition — no, this hypothesis — with our readers. It is not worth while. 

 We only wish gently to call their attention to it and to prevent 

 them from shying at this subject on theoretical grounds. This, 

 then, is our generalized hypothesis, and it is clear that finally our 

 logical efforts will be directed toward the correlation of data, psy- 

 chological and biological, taken in their widest sense. This part of 

 our effort will be small, however, compared with the requirement for 

 painstaking and persistent experimental determination of facts 

 which are the real values we are seeking. In this connection it 

 should be noticed that the present literature of chemical biology 

 contains numerous concrete examples of investigations which have 

 an evident relation to the problems of psychopathology viewed from 

 the broad Standpoint of Southard, as above quoted. In future 

 numbers of the Biochemical Bulletin we shall, from time to 

 time, present our readers with notes and criticisms on this literature. 



It is important that the general aim of this biochemical effort 

 should not be misunderstood, nor its results misinterpreted. The 

 primary and only initial object is to contribute toward the elncida- 

 tion of the conditions of psychopathological action by means of the 

 biochemical method. The curing of tuberculosis was an entirely 

 premature and abortive expenditure of effort before the elucidation 

 of the cause and conditions of that disease. When once these con- 

 ditions have been adequately determined, valuable applications of 

 the new knowledge always follow, and sometimes with astonish- 

 ing results. But now we are only in the beginning of the period of 

 strenuous seeking after much needed information. We wish also 

 to emphasize that we regard the biochemical as only one, but after 

 the psychological the next in importance, of the methods that are 

 available for determining conditions of abnormal mental action. 

 We picture our final understanding of these conditions to be a com- 

 posite and correlated result obtained by different methods, none of 

 which alone would have ever yielded adequate knowledge. 



Now we are asked just what, concretely, is the field of application 

 of biochemistry to the problems of feeble-mindedness. 



This question could be best answered by illustrations from the 



