214 
report I have mentioned he called upon the chemists 
of this country to take note of what was in the wind, 
and while complimenting British physiologists and 
biologists upon their own work, urged upon them the 
immediate need of combining with the chemists. Ten 
years later, Liebig had still to write with reference 
to chemical studies: ‘‘Der Mann welcher in der 
Thierphysiologie wie Saussure in der Pflanzenphysio- 
logie die ersten und wichtigsten Fragen zur Aufgabe 
eeines Lebens macht, fehlt noch in dieser Wissen- 
schaft” (Ann. Chem. Pharm., Ixii., 257, 1847). Much 
later still, he was still making the same complaint. 
As a matter of fact, the combination of chemistry with 
biology, in the full and abundant sense that Liebig’s 
earlier enthusiasm had pictured as so desirable, never 
happened in any country within the limits of his own 
century, while in this country, up to the end of that 
century, it can scarcely be said to have happened at 
all. But the regrettable divorce between these two 
aspects of science has been so often dwelt upon that 
you will feel no wish to hear it treated historically, 
and perhaps even any emphasis given to it now may 
seem out of place, since on the Continent, and notably 
in America, the subject of biochemistry (with its new 
and not very attractive name) has come with great 
suddenness into its kingdom. Even in this country 
the recent successful formation of a Biochemical 
Society gives sure evidence of a greatly increased 
interest in this borderland of science. Yet I am going 
to ask you to listen to some remarks which are a 
reiteration of Liebig’s appeal, as heard by this asso- 
ciation three-quarters of a century ago. 
For one can, I think, honestly say that it is yet 
a rare thing in this country to meet a_ professed 
biologist, even among those unburdened either with 
years or traditions, who has taken the trouble so to 
equip himself in organic chemistry as to understand 
fully an important fact of metabolism stated in terms 
of structural formule. The newer science of physical 
chemistry has made a more direct appeal to the bio- 
logical mind. Its results are expressed in more 
general terms and the bearing of its applications are 
perhaps more obvious, especially at the present 
moment. This fact increases the danger of a further 
neglect in biology of the organic structural side of 
chemistry, upon which, nevertheless, the whole 
modern science of intermediary metabolism depends. 
On the other hand, I think one may say that there 
are only a few among the present leaders of chemical 
thought in our midst who have set themselves to 
appraise with sympathy the drift of biological pro- 
cesses or the nature of the problems that biologists 
have before them. Anyone wishing to see the number 
of biochemical workers increased might therefore with 
equal justice appeal to the teachers of biology or to 
the teachers of chemistry for greater sympathy with 
the borderland. It is a moot point indeed as to 
which is the better side for that borderland to recruit 
its workers from. 
But on the whole it is easier for the intelligent 
adult mind to grasp new problems than to learn a 
new technique. It is better that youth should be 
spent in acquiring the latter. That is why, though 
I admit that it would have been more obviously to 
the point if made some ten years ago, I feel justified 
in repeating to-day the appeal of Liebig to the leading 
chemists of this country, in the hope that they may 
see their way to direct the steps of more of their able 
students into the path of biochemistry. I have been 
specially tempted to do this, rather than to speak upon 
some of many subjects which would have interested 
this section more, for a very practical reason. I 
have been in a position to review the current demand 
of various institutions, home and Colonial, for the 
services of trained biochemists, and can say, I think 
NO. 2294, VOL. 92] 
NATURE 
[OcroBER 16, 1913 
with authority, that the demand will rapidly prove 
to be in excess of the supply. It will be a pity if the 
generation of trained chemists now growing up in 
this country should not share in the restoration of 
this balance. You certainly have the right to tell 
me that I ought, in the circumstances, to be address- 
ing another section; but it may be long before any 
member of my cloth will have the opportunity of 
appealing to that section from the position of advan 
tage that I occupy here. I believe you will forgive 
the particular trajectory of my remarks, because ] am 
sure you will sympathise with their aim. Moreover, 
I have some hope that the considerations upon which 
I shall chiefly base my appeal will have some interest 
for members of this section as well as for the chemist. 
My main thesis will be that in the study of the 
intermediate processes of metabolism we have to 
deal, not with complex substances which elude 
ordinary chemical methods, but with simple substances 
undergoing comprehensible reactions. By simple sub- 
stances I mean such as are of easily ascertainable 
structure and of a molecular weight within a range 
to which the organic chemist is well accustomed. 
T intend also to emphasise the fact that it is not alone 
with the separation and identification of products 
from the animal that our present studies deal; but 
with their reactions in the body; with the dynamic 
side of biochemical phenomena. 
I have made it my business during the last year 
or two to learn, by means of indirect and most diplo- 
matic inquiries, the views held by a number of our 
leading organic chemists with respect to the claims 
of animal chemistry. I do not find any more the 
rather pitying patronage for an inferior discipline, 
and certainly not that actual antagonism, which 
fretted my own youth; but I do find still very widely 
spread a distrust of the present methods of the bio- 
chemist, a belief that much of the work done by 
him is amateurish and inexact. What is much more 
important, and what one should be much more con- 
cerned to deny (though but a very small modicum 
of truth is, or ever was, in the above indictment), is 
the view that such faults are due to something 
inherent in the subject. 
My desire is to point out that continuous progress, 
yielding facts which, by whomsoever appraised, be- 
long to exact science, has gone on in the domain of 
animal chemistry from the days of Liebig until now, 
and that if this progress was until recently slow, 
it was, in the main, due to a continuance of the 
circumstance which so troubled Liebig himself—the 
shortage of workers. : 
But we must also remember that the small band of 
investigators who concerned themselves with the 
chemistry of the animal in the latter half of the 
nineteenth century suffered very obviously from the 
fact that the channels in which chemistry as a whole 
was fated to progress left high and dry certain regions 
of the utmost importance to their subject. In three 
regions particularly the needs of biochemistry were 
insistent. The colloid state of matter dominates the 
milieu in which vital processes progress, but, not- 
withstanding the stimulating work of Graham, the 
pure chemist of the last century consistently lett colloids 
on one side with a shudder of distaste. Again, we 
have come to recognise that the insidious influence of 
catalysts is responsible for all chemical change as it 
occurs in living matter, but for many years after 
Berzelius the organic chemist gave to the subject of 
catalysis very cursory attention, fundamental though 
it be. Lastly, every physiological chemist has to 
realise that among his basal needs is that of accurate 
methods for the estimation of organic substances 
when they are present in complex mixtures. But the 
organic chemist of the nineteenth century did not 
