The Organisation of Matter 



little the various compounds elaborated by life 

 have been reproduced synthetically in the 

 laboratory. It is no longer necessary in order 

 to obtain them to bring into action any forces 

 but those which govern brute matter. How- 

 ever, the victory is incomplete; the bodies re- 

 produced by synthesis are mere products of 

 excretion, the waste materials of life, such as 

 urea, the essences and the perfumes, whereas 

 life itself is concentrated in the protein sub- 

 stances sometimes called albuminoids, because 

 albumen is one of them. They are difficult to 

 tackle. Even to isolate them in a pure state 

 is a very difficult operation. They represent 

 the most complex and unstable fqrm of chemical 

 compounds. That is the reason for the part they 

 play in life. But they are to-day the object of 

 study of a whole army of chemists. The German 

 school, led by Fischer and Kossel, has already 

 succeeded in disintegrating their molecular 

 aggregations; this is the inevitable preliminary 

 work, and we may expect a Berthelot to arise 

 before long to carry out the synthesis of the 

 albuminoids. Physiological chemistry has also 



been occupied with the action in living 

 Q 261 



