CHEMISTRY IN MEDICINE. 



sent a -tijuthfub description of what has been seen, give 

 a- f eelfhg' of 'great security. 



The far-reaching results of chemical research in the 

 last decade have brought to us also a gradual increase 

 in the general interest taken in the chemical aspects of 

 pathology, and so it has been no accident that this altered 

 point of view has found an expression in the change in 

 the character of the annual addresses made before our 

 society. Three years ago we enjoyed an inspiring pres- 

 entation of the pathology of metabolism, and last year 

 brought us a sharply denned discussion of the protein 

 question, such as only ripe experience, hand in hand 

 with critical judgment, can produce. If I to-day find 

 myself once more face to face with the problem of bring- 

 ing before you in our annual meeting another chapter 

 from the realm of chemistry as applied to medicine, I 

 must attribute this honor first of all to that great 

 new interest taken in this subject. This subject is, in 

 fact, worthy of your greatest attention, for we stand at 

 present in the midst of an undreamed-of improvement 

 and development in our point of view in physiology and 

 pathology, and this strange and sudden change is based 

 in particular upon advances in general or physical chem- 

 istry. This science has acquainted us with a series of 

 fundamental laws that govern chemical reactions, whose 

 validity, influenced more or less through special circum- 

 stances, extends also to the changes that go on in living 

 organisms. 



It was probably the first important step for the physico- 

 chemical characterization of living matter when GRAHAM 

 divided all bodies into colloids and crystalloids, according 



