300 LECTURE XIII. 



here to explain pathological processes in the light of physiological-chemical 

 investigations, and on the other hand obtain from pathological research 

 new points of view for physiological-chemical work. Doubtless the essen- 

 tial part of purine metabolism will find its full explanation only by means 

 of further studies in pathology and in physiology. We must be satis- 

 fied with merely sketching the existing situation, and bring forward the 

 fact that for the present there is plenty of room for hypotheses, a sure 

 sign that the investigations have by no means solved the problem. It 

 seems certain that gouty diseases will not all be referred to a single cause, 

 nor to a single disturbance in cellular metabolism. Here, as in diabetes, 

 various disturbances may take place in different stages of the total purine 

 metabolism, which will all finally result in the same symptoms. 



