CHEMICAL PAIIIOLOUY 



CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTION 



THE CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS OF THE CELL 



Since Virchow founded modern pathology the unit of all anatom- 

 ical considerations of disease has been the cell, and in physiology the 

 same unit has been found equally useful. When either physiological 

 or pathological processes are studied from a chemical standpoint, the 

 cell is still found occupying nearly as fundamental a position, for ue 

 can seldom go back to molecules and atoms in investigating biological 

 problems. Although we know that within each cell are many 

 different chemical substances, and that numerous different enzymes 

 and other agencies are exerting their influences upon them, yet we 

 find that the reactions are all profoundly affected by the environment 

 in which they occur, and it is the structure of the cell that determines 

 the environment of its chemical constituents. All chemical reactions 

 are modified by physical influences, and an enzyme may have quite a 

 different effect upon a substance when it acts in a test-tube from what 

 it will have when in a living cell, whose structure permits the diffusion 

 of one substance while preventing that of another, and where countless 

 other substances and enzymes may participate in the changes. The 

 cell is the structural unit of the living organism, and as l\v its physical 

 properties it modifies chemical processes, so it becomes practically the 

 unit in physiological and pathological chemistry. All consideration 

 of the chemistry of disease must thus refer back to the chemistry and 

 physics of the normal cell, and on this account a brief resume of these 

 subjects may serve as a fitting introduction to the strictly pathological 

 matters to follow.^ 



As applied to the animal tissues, the term "cell" is entirelj' a mis- 

 nomer, for it describes accurately only such forms of "cells" as are 



' Of necessity, only so much of the very extensive literature on cell structure 

 and cell chemistry can be considered as will have direct bearing upon the subject 

 matter to follow, referring the reader for more detailed information to such works 

 as Wilson's "The Cell in Development aad Inheritance;" Mathews" "Physiological 

 Chemistry;" Hammarsten's "'Physiological Chemistry;" Gurwitsch's " Morpho- 

 logic und Biologic der Zelle;" Hober's " Physikalische Chemie der Zelle und der 

 Gevvebe;" Hamburger's "Osmotischer Druck und lonenlehre;" Loeb's "Dynamics 

 of Living Matter;" Oppenheimer's "Handbuch der Biochemie;" and Bottazzi, 

 "Handbuch der vergl. Physiologic," Vol. I, for general discussion, and to the most 

 important monographs for treatment of special points. 

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