242 Biochemical Research at Vineland, N. J. [Jan. 



criticisms on the literature, we shall treat this subject more fully. 

 It seems a pity, f rom both the scientific and the humanitarian stand- 

 point, that such potentially valuable experiments on human subjects 

 should pass without an examination of their most important factor 

 — that of the metaboHsm of the physiologically much afifected 

 subject. 



Our second line of effort will be that of lipoid and brain chem- 

 istry. It will not be pursued extensively until we have obtained, 

 from the observations of metabolism and the third line of effort 

 described below, some indications of the directions in this large and 

 inherently difficult field that it would be best to pursue. Contrary 

 to the common Impression, the present literature already shows the 

 important and practical bearing of this little developed field of chem- 

 istry on the psychopathological problem. 



A third kind of work which in the near future will become 

 practically inevitable is the study of heredity, growth and develop- 

 ment from the particitlar angle of view of the psychopathologist. 

 It is well known how strongly the scientific and the public attention 

 is now fixed upon the hereditary and congenital (if not hereditary) 

 factors involved in the conditions of abnormal mental action. With- 

 out going into detail, we wish to emphasize the fact that the hered- 

 itary factor in this problem by no means removes it from the field 

 of biochemical study, nor makes the pathological conditions any less 

 amenable to elucidation by that method. In fact, the only real hope 

 for the elucidation of the processes of reproduction and heredity 

 seems, in the light of experiments already made, to lie in the direc- 

 tion of an intimate knowledge of the chemistry and physics of the 

 protoplasmic basis of Hfe. 



Biochemical Laboratory, Training School, 

 Vineland, New Jersey. 



