Preface 



\\aien an American botanist and a Belgian pathologist collaborate 

 in writing a book, the obstacles to be encountered are necessarily 

 numerous, and this is true of the present work even though the subject 

 is limited to the single substance, colchicine. Our collaboration has 

 required intercontinental travel, hours spent together in discussing 

 factual materials from plant and animal sciences, countless days 

 assembling a vast bibliography. 



Finally, our cooperative project made it necessary to overcome 

 barriers inherent in our widely different research fields, to resolve 

 problems arising from the use of different languages, and to recognize 

 the dissimilar perspectives of the American and European educational 

 systems. But a common ground of interest was maintained, irrespec- 

 tive of personal interests, through a constant realization of the re- 

 markable and singular properties of colchicine as a mitotic poison 

 and as a tool for experimental work. Moreover, research programs in 

 mitotic problems which each of us had developed prior to the work 

 with colchicine provided a basis of mutual interest. 



This work actually had two beginnings when in 1912, almost 

 simultaneously, two scientists commenced manuscripts, each without 

 knowledge of the other. One of them was A. P. Dustin, Sr., of Brussels, 

 whose untimely death occurred in the \ear his review was started. 

 The task of completing this study fortunately passed to Dr. Dustin's 

 son, and in 1917 the botanical writing done in America by the senior 

 author and the medical studies under way in Europe were brought 

 together into one joint project. It was decided to integrate the many 

 lines of research with colchicine into one study. Ihis book is the 

 result of that cooperative effort. 



A survey of the chapters comprising this study will indicate the 

 many lines of research that have been included. The modern litera- 

 tme on colchicine is vast. The references to gout alone would require 



LviiJ 



