MAN'S SYNTHETIC FUTURE — ADAMS 229 



food is the most general and universally liked human activity. In 

 spite of properly adjusted diets, the human race is susceptible to a long 

 list of bacterial, virus, fungus, and degenerative diseases, some of 

 which have thus far resisted the efforts of science. 



Until half a century ago medicinal products for treatment of dis- 

 ease were confined chiefly to plant or animal extracts or principles dis- 

 covered originally through the cut-and-try methods of the physicians 

 of earlier ages. The chemist has now synthesized many of these prin- 

 ciples and on the basis of this knowledge has been able to produce 

 other products superior to the natural. Drugs that have not been 

 derived from the basic information provided by nature have been 

 fortuitous or have been discovered usually by serendipity, a combina- 

 tion of skillful observation and chance that leads so often during 

 scientific research to unexpected achievements of basic or applied 

 importance. 



Even though a marvelous array of drugs is now available, and a 

 vast storehouse of information has been collected, the laws of chemo- 

 therapy are still unrevealed and decades will pass before a rational 

 chemical basis will be provided for discovery of new therapeutic 

 agents. The knowledge of the living cell in which the chemical re- 

 actions are constantly occurring to provide the life process is still very 

 meager. However, the elaborate series and combinations of reactions 

 in the cell are gradually being untangled. The cell functions in health 

 and disease will sooner or later be clarified. 



While these more basic explorations are progressing, search for more 

 effective drugs by present procedures will be intensified. New and 

 better drugs for combatting bacterial diseases may be expected. I 

 envisage the gradual replacement of the drugs which must be admin- 

 istered intravenously or intramuscularly by others of equal or greater 

 potency which may be taken orally. Many of the most stubborn dis- 

 eases of mankind are those caused by viruses, such as the common cold, 

 poliomyelitis, spinal meningitis, influenza, virus pneumonia, mumps, 

 and measles. Satisfactory drugs for their treatment are lacking. The 

 retarded progress in this field in contrast to that made in the study 

 of bacterial diseases is the result of the absence of suitable laboratory 

 or animal assay methods for determining the effectiveness of any 

 chemical agent upon a particular virus. Bacteria can be grown in the 

 laboratory, but viruses propagate only within living bacteria or living 

 cells. Research in the next decades will solve the vexing problem of 

 finding viricides, and thus open a new chapter in medical therapy. 



For the degenerative diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, or 

 arteriosclerosis, it is unlikely that complete cures can be found, but 

 the organic chemist will succeed in providing products that will elimi- 

 . nate susceptibility toward these diseases. 



