PREFACE 



DURING the past score of years the subject of biological chem- 

 istry has attracted the attention and labors of a constantly increasing 

 number of investigators, many of whom have, for one reason or 

 another, been interested in pathological conditions. Sometimes the 

 physiologist has sought for light on his problems in the evidence 

 afforded by related pathological conditions. Frequently clinicians 

 have studied the metabolic changes and the composition of the 

 products of disease processes. Relatively seldom, unfortunately, 

 has the pathologist attacked his problems by chemical methods. 

 From the above and other sources have come scattered fragments 

 of information concerning the chemical changes that occur in patho- 

 logical phenomena. Only when bearing upon conditions such as 

 gout and diabetes, which concern alike 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 unconfirmed items of information, scattered 

 through medical, chemical, physiological, and physical literature. 



It has been the aim of the writer to collect these scattered frag- 

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

 consideration of General Pathology from the standpoint of the chem- 

 ical processes which occur in pathological conditions. Owing to the 

 diffusely scattered condition of the literature on which this work is 

 based, it cannot be claimed that all of the many contributions from 

 which useful information 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 this nature. 

 Within the past few years great and encouraging advances have 

 been made in biological chemistry, which in many instances seem 

 to throw light 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. Path- 

 ologists have come to feel that the opportunities for the acquire- 



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