CHAPTER LXXIII 



Neural metabolism and function — introduction 



SIR RUDOLPH A. PETERS A.R.C. Institute of Animal Physiology, Babraham, Cambridge, England 



it is difficult to be patient; and when this pa- 

 tience must extend past a lifetime, it becomes al- 

 most humanly impossible not to hope for some quicker 

 result. This is possibly the reason why there has 

 been in the past such reluctance to encourage the 

 works of those who sat down patiently to unravel 

 the intricate chemistry and biochemistry of the 

 nervous system. The isolated vision of the pioneer 

 J. L. W. Thudichum 1 becomes more remarkable the 

 more we study it; few could attain to the faith which 

 made him write: "Premiums in the shape of sensa- 

 tional discoveries may be hoped for but cannot be 

 assured even to the greatest genius." And again: 

 "But what has to penetrate in relation to this ques- 

 tion, more completely into the consciousness of 

 pathologists is this, that to understand zymoses, to be 

 able to counteract them by rational as distinguished 

 from empirical or accidentally discovered means, is 

 only possible by the aid of a complete knowledge of 

 the chemical constitution of all the tissues, organs 

 and juices of the body and of all their possible de- 

 composition products." Very much later than 

 Thudichum, Irvine Page quotes a statement made 

 to him by a distinguished neurologist in London who 

 dismissed brain chemistry "with the remark that 

 nothing would ever be learnt by the analysis of a 

 cerebral hash." In a way the very success of histology 

 in delineating the complex microstructure of nerv- 

 ous tissues and of demonstrating changes occurring in 

 disease stood in the light of the recognition that prior 

 to the visible microscopic lesion there must be a 

 change in the biochemistry, a biochemical lesion, if 

 one likes to term it so, which initiates the changes 



1 Thudichum's work appeared in two books: .-1 Treatise mi the 

 Chemical Construction of the Brain. London : Bailliere, Tindall and 

 Cox, 1884; and Die chemische Konstitution des Gehirns des Xlcnschen 

 und der Tiere. Tubingen: Pietzcker, 1901. 



ultimately registering to the microscope as differ- 

 ence in staining and structure. Even today in many 

 quarters this view is little understood. To put it 

 crudely, in regard to the nervous system we are much 

 in the position of someone trying to repair a motor 

 without knowing anything about its anatomv. To 

 carry this analogy a step further, it might really be 

 some help to fragment the motor by gentle methods 

 and so try to find out what individual parts such as 

 the carburetor or spark plug could do. The analogy 

 cannot be pressed too far, but those who think that 

 guess work as to this or that possible constituent 

 playing its part in some disease can produce results 

 without real knowledge of the dynamic working 

 machinery are not so far removed from our friend, 

 ignorant of his car engine. The only great difference 

 is the enormously greater complexity of the brain 

 and nerves, and this is where our admiration of 

 Thudichum must come in. Nearly 100 years ago he 

 had the cool courage to settle down and dissect the 

 complexities of the organic chemistry of mixtures of 

 substances, many of which can be completely under- 

 stood only by modern methods. 



After Thudichum, little happened for many years, 

 although the Kochs made their valuable studies of 

 myelination in relation to development. There had 

 to be a gap until the modern approach developed 

 through enzyme studies in relation to the glycolytic 

 and oxidation fields, mainly in the United Kingdom 

 and in the U. S. A. These led to the generalization 

 that it was the carbohydrates which were the fuel 

 for nervous activity, and to the connection of this 

 with some vitamins, especially thiamine in its rela- 

 tion to convulsive activity. Much of this work in the 

 late 1920's and early 1930's was done with crude 

 brei and without the knowledge and refinements of 

 modern methods, but it did reap a rich harvest. We 



'789 



