24 PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY IN MEDICINE. 



of the metabolic changes that take place in living matter. 

 This so-called 'vegetative physiology has been greatly 

 advanced through the modern development of theoretical 

 or physical chemistry. It is the purpose of this young 

 and rapidly growing branch of the inorganic sciences to 

 establish the general laws governing chemical changes. 

 Through the stupendous theoretical and experimental 

 accomplishments of such investigators as VAN'T HOFF, 

 ARRHENIUS, GIBBS, HITTORF, KOHLRAUSCH, OSTWALD, 

 NERNST, and PLANCK, our understanding in this direction 

 has within a comparatively short time been incredibly 

 increased and deepened. As in every great development 

 in the exact sciences, physiology may in this case also 

 expect to be enriched in no small way, and though it to- 

 day stands only at the beginning of this wonderful fertil- 

 ization, the number of workers along special and general 

 subjects in physiology is daily increasing. In fact, in 

 the realm of general physiology the physico-chemical 

 method of looking at things has been the first to make 

 it possible to ask many questions in a general way and 

 to answer them according to the present status of physico- 

 chemical investigation. New analogies and transitions 

 between phenomena in living and in dead matter have 

 been discovered; and it has often proved no small task 

 to discover that side of a phenomenon which charac- 

 terizes it as a specifically biological one. 



Important as many of the advances that have been 

 made may seem, closer inspection shows that even at 

 the best we are only beginning to solve the questions before 

 us. 



The development brought about through the seeds of 

 physical chemistry has as yet not led to an equilibrium 



