BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 



growth factors and their function in specific biochemical reactions 

 began to be understood. 



Furthermore, the use of the various Acetobacter types may not have 

 aided significantly in elucidating the consecutive steps involved in 

 biological oxidations, but it cannot be denied that the approach 

 Kluyver had suggested in 1924 is fundamentally the same as that 

 which, more than two decades later, was employed with such spectacu- 

 lar success in the analysis of biochemical mechanisms, and particu- 

 larly biosyntheses, with mutant strains of micro-organisms that could 

 be graded in a sequence similar to the one Kluyver had used in ar- 

 ranging the different types of vinegar bacteria. 



During this same period Donker [1924], in a biochemical investigation 

 of the anaerobic metabolism of Bacillus polymyxa, a sporeforming bac- 

 terium frequently found in jars of improperly home-sterilized vege- 

 tables, recognized the sugar fermentation of this organism as strikingly 

 resembling that of Aerobacter aerogenes, whose fermentative metabolism 

 had been clarified by the studies of Harden, Walpole, and Norris. 

 This outcome showed that metabolic processes of the same kind may 

 be encountered among organisms of different morphological groups, 

 and hence to the tantalizing notion that such instances may be enor- 

 mously useful in developing new and badly needed guides for solving 

 taxonomic problems. The possibility of considering B. polymyxa as the 

 equivalent among sporeforming bacteria of the non-sporeforming 

 Aerobacter species was the justification for proposing a new generic 

 rank for the former, with the name Aerobacillus to indicate its metab- 

 olic relationship. 



Together with the differentiation of the genus Acetobacter along bio- 

 chemical lines, this development has undoubtedly been responsible 

 for Kluyver's important contributions to the field of the classification 

 of micro-organisms, and to the gradual emergence of ideas that have 

 decisively influenced the trends in this field. 



THE UNFOLDING OF THE PROGRAMME 



In the course of the next two years the above-mentioned studies with 

 the acetic acid bacteria and Aerob. polymyxa led to a development that 

 signified one of the truly great advances in biochemistry. The recog- 



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