TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE 



THE wide and cordial appreciation with which, von 

 Fiirth's " Problems " has been met, not alone by his students 

 and clinicians, but by technical scientists in physiology and 

 in pathology as well, is ample reason for its presentation in 

 translated form. The book is based upon, and in the orig- 

 inal text is cast in the form of twenty-five lectures addressed 

 to students of biological chemistry, and has as its purpose 

 the presentation of the subject of normal and pathological 

 metabolic chemistry as a broad and connected whole. As a 

 well-prepared and enthusiastic guide, thoroughly conversant 

 with the topography, history, popular activities, spirit and 

 ambitions of the land through which he is conducting a group 

 of thoughtful travellers, seeks to point out the salient 

 features of the landscape and the accomplishments of the 

 people, their successes and their needs, and thus in the end 

 leaves in the minds of the group before him a well-balanced 

 idea of the region, so our author seeks to guide his readers 

 through the living body, following the ingestion of the great 

 types of food, their digestion and absorption, pointing out 

 here and there in the unknown field of intermediate metab- 

 olism the little which has become known, indicating their 

 resultants, marking the points of departure of disease, pre- 

 senting the big facts which we know in connection with the 

 metabolic affections, and at all times suggesting the possibil- 

 ities of further investigation and of orienting our thoughts 

 into conformity with the general plan of nature's chemical 

 performances. The book is thus rather a guide to thought 

 than to the technicalities of the laboratory, and in this ap- 

 peals alike to students, chemists, biologists and physicians. 

 It is in no sense a compendium, nor is it a book of reference 

 for details, technical or otherwise ; but is a presentation of 

 the well-ordered thought of a master of biochemistry, the 



