PREFACE 



THE studies on soaps detailed in these pages were originally 

 undertaken for the elucidation of various purely biological ques- 

 tions. The proof that widely differing theoretical and practical 

 problems associated with the maintenance of normal physiology 

 in plants and animals or in the treatment of their diseases are 

 essentially problems in colloid-chemistry (more particularly 

 prol.lems in the colloid-chemistry of the proteins) made more 

 an<l more evident the necessity for a better understanding of the 

 nature of various colloid-chemical changes themselves. The 

 chemistry of the proteins as chains of widely differing amino- 

 aeids presented, however, such an infinity of possible variables 

 that every direct attempt to analyze their colloid-chemi< :il 

 behavior was beset with difficulty. For this reason we turned 

 t<> the soaps, for these substances not only contain a more con- 

 trollable number of purely chemical variables, but their colloid- 

 chnnical behavior is much like that of the proteins. From the 

 surer ground of the soaps it was then possible to step over into 

 the more slippery one of the proteins. What are some of the 

 bearings of our various conclusions upon the biological behavior 

 of living cells under normal and abnormal circumstances is detailed 

 in the pages that follow. 



The reason why this volume is written as it is, is largely the 

 fruit imstance. While my first interests are biological 



and inrdic;tl. it happens that, jjenerous friends have often asked 

 .sent the work contained in this and some other of my 

 books before their societies devoted to various branches of pure 

 and applied < ; , . Due to such encouragement I have set 



d..-An in tin- \oluim- tin substance of what was said to them and 

 in which they -.-iu rahftkm to then-own field H of endeavor. 



\r ^cimiitie journals to winch this work was ' 



submitted <mly Science and The Chemical Engineer could find 



