36 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX. No. 1254 



distinct forms, which have in the simplest 

 cases the same relations to each other as my 

 right hand bears to my left, and that shortly 

 after, he made the remarkable discovery that 

 living matter discriminates sharply between 

 two such forms, which are identical in every 

 particular except that the one is the optical 

 image of the other. Thus, he foimd thaf 

 dextro-tartaric acid is destroyed by ferments, 

 Isevo-tartaric acid is not. It is of interest to 

 mention, in passing, that this very discovery, 

 arising out of pure chemical researches, was 

 the fortunate incident in Pasteur's life that 

 drew his attention to fermentation and opened 

 the path to his great work on the germ theory'* 

 of disease, to which medicine owes its present 

 stren^h. 



The mode of attack used by pure chemistry 

 is to isolate pure compounds and study them 

 exhaustively, both as to structure and as to 

 their chemical activities. In attacking the 

 problem of protoplasm we must isolate such 

 of its components as we can, the materials it 

 uses as food, the materials it excretes, and 

 study each exhaustively. Thus, another great 

 leader in this field, Emil Fischer, has laid the 

 foundation of the chemistry of carbohydrates 

 by his brilliant studies of the monosaccharides. 

 How important these studies are for the sci- 

 ence of protoplasmic activity is shown by the 

 fact that of the sixteen stereoisomeric alde- 

 hyde-hexoses, differing only in the space ar- 

 rangements of the atoms in their molecules, 

 only three, d-glucose, d-mannose, d-galactose, 

 are directly fermentable! Fischer, again, in 

 his classical researches on the amino-acids and 

 the polypeptids has been laying another broad 

 and sure foundation for the study of the 

 ultimate chemistry of the proteins. It is char- 

 acteristic of the greatness and thoroug-hness — 

 and the slowness — of the methods of pure 

 chemistry that this study of the chemistry of 

 proteins is growing in the same way that a 

 magnificent monument would be erected. It 

 is well-knovm that any one of the beautiful 

 cathedrals of Europe was constructed as a rule 

 not in one generation and by one architect, but 

 rather slowly grew as the product of the efforts 

 of succeeding generations, of the genius of 



successive architects. We see now only the 

 foundations of the monument of the chemistry 

 of the proteins, laid with painstaking acciuracy, 

 by workers in all countries. None of us will 

 live to see the completion of the monvunent in 

 all of its glory, but those who best understand 

 the work have a supreme faith in the ultimate 

 realization of their vision — and with it must 

 come an insight into the nature of protoplasm 

 and of life which no other study can hold out 

 to us in like measure. 



What a wealth of problems lies ready for the 

 bold investigator ! We may think of the isola- 

 tion and exhaustive study of the active prin- 

 ciples of the secretions of the internal glands, 

 on whose presence in balanced proportions our 

 healthy existence depends in so large a meas- 

 ure. Suprarenin or adrenalin has already 

 been isolated by our American Abel and pre- 

 pared artificially by the Germans, Stolz and 

 Flaecher. The active principle of the thyroid 

 gland has been isolated by E. 0. Kendall of 

 the Maj'o Laboratories and fo\m.d so potent, 

 that an imbelievably minute amount injected 

 into patients makes the difference between dis- 

 ease and health. Dr. McCollum is closing in 

 on the secret of the active principles' in our 

 food commonly called the vitamins : should 

 they prove to be organic and not vital mineral 

 components, a study of their chemical nature 

 and the structure of their molecules would 

 follow, and what a triumph for humanity if 

 we could then produce them from waste prod- 

 ucts like coal-tar and help out the fast de- 

 creasing ratio between supply and demand of 

 dairy and similar products in crowded popula- 

 tions! You men of medicine do use organs 

 of animals, ground or extracted, to make good 

 a deficiency in this or that secretion in dis- 

 ease, but how much greater would your confi- 

 dence in your therapy be if in place of jnix- 

 tures of uncertain potency, pure chemical 

 products were at your disposal. It is not so 

 long since you used to employ your most im- 

 portant specific alkaloids in the same 'un- 

 certain way, but what modem doctor would 

 now hesitate in his choice between strychnine 

 and nux vomica, atropin and belladonna, mor- 

 phine and opium! Moreover, the isolation of 



