PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 



During the past score of years the subject of biological chemistry 

 has attracted the attention and labors of a constantly increasing num- 

 ber of investigators, many of whom have, for one reason or another, 

 been interested in pathological conditions. Sometimes the physiolo- 

 gist has sought for light on his problems in the evidence afforded by re- 

 lated pathological conditions. Frequently chnicians have studied the 

 metabohc changes and the composition of the products of disease pro- 

 cesses. Relatively seldom, unfortunately, has the pathologist at- 

 tacked his problems by chemical methods. From the above and other 

 sources have come scattered fragments of information concerning the 

 chemical changes that occur in pathological phenomena. Only when 

 bearing upon conditions such as gout and diabetes, which concern 

 ahke the physiologist, the clinician, and the pathologist, have the 

 fragments been moulded together into a homogeneous whole. For the 

 most part they still remain isolated, uncorrelated, frequently uncon- 

 firmed items of information, scattered through medical, chemical, 

 physiological, and physical literature. 



It has been the aim of the writer to collect these scattered fragments 

 as completely as possible, and to use them as a basis for a consideration 

 of General Pathology from the standpoint of the chemical processes 

 which occur in pathological conditions. Owing to the diffusely scat- 

 tered conditions of the literature on which this work is based, it cannot 

 be claimed that all of the many contributions from which useful in- 

 formation might be obtained have been noticed; but it is hoped that 

 a sufficiently thorough collection of material has been made to afford 

 a fair basis for a consideration of "Chemical Pathology." The time 

 seems ripe for an effort of tliis nature. Within the past few years 

 great and encouraging advances have been made in biological chem- 

 istry, which in many instances seem to throw hght upon pathological 

 processes. In medicine, the use of chemical methods in the study of 

 clinical manifestations has become more general, and has yielded 

 valuable information. Pathologists have come to feel that the op- 

 portunities for the acquirement of knowledge by means of morphologi- 

 cal studies have become reduced to a minimum, while the fields of 

 pathological physiology and chemistry lie still almost unexplored. 

 The development of research upon the subject of natural and acquired 

 immunity has presented innumerable problems, all of which are 

 essentially chemical. And perhaps most important of all is the general 



