9i The Unity of the Organism 



chemist ]iavlii(^, however, surpassed the naturalist in the 

 refinement of tlie method. This coming of the chemist into 

 the field of the taxonomist is of the utmost interest to the 

 naturalist, since on the naturalist's principle of "neglect 

 nothing" it is impossible for him to be satisfied until he 

 knows the chemical as well as the anatomical and histolo- 

 gical makeup of organisms. 



Not organic-chemistry nor physiologic- nor bio-chemistry 

 is what he wants, but homonine, bovine, canine, salmonine, 

 quercine chemistry, and so on. Surely nothing less than 

 this will satisfy him and probably this will not, for even it 

 is only generic chemistry; it is not species chemistry, much 

 less individual chemistry, and in all probability the time 

 is not far distant w^hen he will demand individual or per- 

 sonal chemistry. 



From the stand j)oint of chemical practice this demand is 

 almost ovenvhelming. Take a live dog or even a live shark 

 to the best manned and best equipped chemical laboratory 

 on earth and seriously propose that a complete chemical 

 analysis be made, and what sort of an answer do you sup- 

 pose you would get? Still more what will the answer be 

 when you go on to say to the director of the laboratory that 

 the analysis of this dog alone will not meet your needs, but 

 that one other animal at least must be anal^^zed with equal 

 care and completeness since your enterprise is as essentially 

 comparative as it is descriptive and that really what you 

 \\ ill finally call for will be an equally thorough analysis of 

 every animal. 



These reflections lead straight-away to the inquiry, first 

 in a general way, as to how much may be found in the store- 

 houses of chemical knowledge that is to the naturalist's 

 purpose; and second, as to whether or not chemical re- 

 searches of the sort needed by him have been undertaken 

 to any extent. Or turaing this into language in which the 

 naturalist is wont to express himself, how far has biochem- 



