OcTOBEk 24, 1907] 



NA TURE 



6,1 



which have actively worlved for the benefit of agriculture, 

 forestry, and fisheries. 



Mr. W. R. Barker, chairman of the Museum and Art 

 Gallery Committee, said the committee of that institution 

 recognises the beneficial effect of active cooperation with 

 the University College of Bristol, and to that end is rapidl/ 

 developing a special section of economic biology for the 

 exhibition of insect and plant pests, and of material 

 damaged by them. Prof. A. F. Stanley Kent explained 

 that the new department has been called into existence 

 bv the needs of the west of England, and that applications 

 for help and inquiry have come in rapidly. Valuable 

 research work has already been carried on at the college 

 in matters relating to economic biology, and important 

 results have been obtained in connection with ciders, black- 

 currant disease, and the development of lobsters on the 

 coast of Devon and Cornwall. It was announced that 

 .Mr. Richardson Cross has offered land for an experi- 

 mental station, where investigations upon various crops, 

 manures, &c., can be carried on ; additional land has 

 also been oiTered by Mr. James Sinnott at St. Anne's 

 Park. It is intended that the teaching side of the work 

 shall be kept subsidiary to the advisory, and that the real 

 function shall be to supply information and render help 

 wherever required. Prof. Lloyd Morgan pointed out that 

 academic and national interests in these matters are one, 

 and that the department will directly benefit the com- 

 munity. Mr. W. E. Collinge (Birmingham) described the 

 work of his department in the University of Birmingham, 

 instancing as an example of the work done the yield from 

 two orchards of the same acreage, and only separated 

 by a road. One left unsprayed produced fruit worth 122L ; 

 the other, that had been sprayed, produced fruit worth 

 497'- 



SYNTHETICAL CHEMISTRY IN ITS 

 RELATION TO BIOLOGY 

 TT is easy to understand why in its early youth organic 

 ■*■ chemistry was so closely connected with biology ; the 

 materials which the chemist was called upon to investigate 

 were mostly products of animal or vegetable origin. 

 Indeed, carbohydrates, proteins, and vegetable acids served 

 Lavoisier, Gay-Lussac, Berzelius, and Liebig as materials 

 in elaborating the methods of elementary analysis. 



The isolation of urea from animal urine by Rouelle, 

 the recognition of uric acid, lactic acid, malic acid, and 

 glycerine by .Scheele, the isolation of asparagine by 

 Vauquelin and Robiquet, of morphine by Serturnier, 

 together with many other similar discoveries accomplished 

 during the first ten years of the nineteenth century, are 

 admirable examples of the manner in which the living 

 world was drawn upon and made to yield up its treasure 

 of chemical compounds. The many hundreds of natural 

 organic compounds enumerated in the text-books of animal 

 and vegetable chemistry are proof of the rich harvest 

 since gathered in this field of investigation ; but how small 

 is their number when compared with the 130,000 carbon 

 compounds which organic chemistry can boast of to-day. 

 W\ these, it is known, are either products of the artificial 

 transformation of organic matters occurring naturally or 

 have been completely synthesised from their elements. 

 The accumulation of this huge material, including the 

 elaboration of the necessary methods, has been the main 

 occupation of organic chemists during the past sixty 

 years ; and as their discoveries gave rise to much happy 

 speculation, for the time being they took the lead in 

 developing chemical theory. 



It is not to be denied that, in the latter half of the 

 last century, owing to the growth of the subject in import- 

 ance, organic chemistry became separated from biology. 

 It cannot be mere chance that the most famous of Liebig's 

 pupils, A. W. Hofniann, A. KekuM, and A. VVurtz, did not 

 follow the example of their great teacher, whose chief 

 triumphs were won by the use he made of chemical 

 methods in solving biological problems. Perhaps they 

 were restrained by the feeling that, mainly through his 



1 Ahrideed from the FaraHav lecture delivered hy Prnf. ?:niil Fischer, 

 F.R.P., at a meeime r-f ihe Chemical Society held at the Royal Institution 

 on Fiiday, October 18. 



NO. T982, VOL. 76] 



influence, physiological chemistry had been developed into 

 a separate discipline, which should be cared for by men 

 who could devote themselves entirely to its service. Such 

 subdivision of labour undoubtedly has many advantages ; 

 the disadvantages would have outweighed these had it 

 precluded interchange of experiences and friendly co- 

 operation of workers in the two fields ; the history of 

 both sciences, however, affords ample proof that such has 

 not been the case. 



Physiologists have ever been ready to avail themselves 

 of the latest developments of chemical analysis and 

 synthesis, whilst organic chemists have not only been 

 stimulated in many ways by biologists, but their studies 

 have derived much practical aid from biological science. 

 I m;iy instance the modern development of the chemistry 

 of fermentation, which began with the pioneer work of 

 Pasteur, and was greatly favoured by the introduction of 

 Koch's refined bacteriological methods; also the flourish- 

 ing industry to which the manufacture of medical remedies 

 prepared by synthetic methods has given rise. 



But organic chemistry will certainly never be content 

 to act as the mere handmaid of biology. This is 

 impossible, as the theoretical and technical problems which 

 she is already called upon to consider are too numerous, 

 and they cannot fail to increase in number and importance 

 in the future ; but I do consider it not only possible, but 

 desirable, that the close connection of chemistry with 

 biology which prevailed in the days of Liebig and Dumas 

 should be re-established, as the great chemical secrets of 

 life are only to be unveiled by cooperative work. I will 

 therefore attempt to indicate the part chemistry can play 

 by reference to cases of which I can claim to have 

 personal ex[5^rience. 



We know that in nature the construction of organic 

 matter begins in the leaves of plants with the conversion 

 of carbon dioxide into sugar, from which many physio- 

 logists suppose the complex substances contained in the 

 living cell are formed by further changes in which 

 nitrogen, sulphur, and phosphorus take part. 



These transformations are for the most part enveloped 

 in mystery. We know nothing definitely even of the 

 assimilation of carbon dioxide. Of the various hypotheses 

 advanced to explain the change, that advocated by \. von 

 Baeyer has gained most support, namely, the view that 

 the initial product is formaldehyde, glucose being formed 

 from this by a process of polymerisation. Actually both 

 changes have been effected artificially. After it had been 

 shown by Bulleroff that on heating formaldehyde with lime 

 water a sugar-like, syrupy product is formed, and 

 O. Loew had improved the method of effecting the con- 

 densation, I was able to adduce proof that the complex 

 mixture contains a small quantity of an a-acrose which 

 can be transformed into glucose. As it was known that 

 carbon dioxide could be converted into formaldehyde by 

 more or less drastic means, the pieparation of glucose 

 from carbon dioxide thus became a possibility. Recently, 

 Fenton has succeeded in carrying out the reduction of 

 carbon dioxide to formaldehyde at a low temperature in 

 aqueous solution, so that it is now possible to effect the 

 complete synthesis of sugar at temperatures such as prevail 

 in the living plant. But how thorough is the work of the 

 plant in comparison with our laboratory practice ; usually 

 when such questions are discussed, the poor yields which 

 our methods give rise to are forgotten I 



I need only allude here to recent apparently successful 

 attempts, on the one hand, to effect the reduction of 

 carbonic acid to formaldehyde by means of light, and, on 

 the other, to detect formaldehyde in green leaves, as Prof. 

 Meldola dealt exhaustively and critically with these ques- 

 tions in his presidential address eighteen months ago. I 

 may be allowed, however, to dwell somewhat on one 

 peculiar feature of the natural change, namely, the 

 asymmetric character of the synthesis ; according to pre- 

 sent exoerience, and especially the brilliant investigations 

 of H. Brown and Morris, the optically active hexoses of 

 the i/-series, sjlucose and fructose, are alone formed. 



But from the experience gained in effecting syntheses in 

 the sugar group, as I showed some time ago, it is possible 

 to give a fairly satisfactory explanation of this change. 

 It is only necessary to assume that the condensation is 

 preceded by the formation of an additive compound of 



