PREFACE 



Science, like art, music, and literature, is susceptible to 

 fashions, and it has been my good fortune to be actively 

 engaged in a field of research that has attracted many in- 

 vestigators in the last ten years. This has added much 

 personal stimulus to the fascination of scientific research, 

 and it is always a great pleasure to talk "shop" with an 

 ever-growing circle of microbiologists and biochemists. An 

 invitation to present three lectures at the distinguished 

 Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers was an extremely 

 happy event for me, as it enabled me to meet and talk with 

 both old and new friends and to lecture on a topic I espe- 

 cially enjoy. For this two-fold pleasure I should like to 

 express my warmest appreciation to CIBA Pharmaceutical 

 Products Inc., whose generous support made these Lectures 

 in Microbial Biochemistry possible. 



The structure of the microbial cell has intrigued most 

 microbiologists, and what has been particularly fascinating 

 has been the discovery that their biochemical apparatus and 



