78 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLT. No. 1152 



complete asymmetric synthesis has as yet 

 ever been accomplished, notwithstanding 

 the repeated efforts of many of our most 

 skilful workers, has led some scientists to 

 the belief that the problem does not admit 

 of solution; that there exists in the organ- 

 ism some vital force or agency which directs 

 the manner of combination of the atoms 

 in the molecule and that this force is not 

 reproducible in the laboratory. Such scien- 

 tists, therefore, find in the facts of asym- 

 metric syntheses an argument in support of 

 the doctrine of vitalism — that doctrine 

 which postulates that life is not the result 

 of physical and chemical forces merely, but 

 that these forces are guided through the 

 directing agency of some vital force that 

 comes into action with the life of the 

 organism. 



The advocates of the doctrine of vitalism 

 criticize the assumption of Fischer cited 

 above, on the ground that the destruction 

 of one of the forms of an asymmetric com- 

 pound partakes just as much of the mirac- 

 ulous as does the production of one of the 

 forms alone ; for with one possible exception 

 the methods for accomplishing the separa- 

 tion require the use of already existing op- 

 tically active substances. The exception 

 referred to is the mechanical method, which 

 is applicable, however, only when the two 

 forms are solid compounds and separate 

 from their solutions in crystals that are re- 

 lated to each other as object to image — a 

 property which is possessed by the salts of 

 the racemic tartaric acid. In all such cases 

 it is readily possible to separate the two 

 forms from each other mechanically, as 

 Pasteur did in his original discovery. The 

 opponents of the doctrine of vitalism hold 

 that this constitutes a complete asymmetric 

 synthesis; that starting with inactive sub- 

 stances, optically active forms have been ob- 

 tained separate from each other without 

 the use of previously existing optically ac- 



tive compounds, and without in any way 

 employing the agency of life. To the vital- 

 ist, however, the action of the investigator 

 in separating the two forms of crystals 

 from each other is exactly similar to the 

 action of an enzyme which destroys the one 

 form and leaves the other in a pure state. 

 This view is expressed by Professor Japp 

 as follows: 



It requires the living operator, whose intellect 

 embraces the conception of opposite forma of 

 asymmetry, to separate them (i. e., the two forma 

 of crystals). Such a process can. not, by any 

 stretch of language, be termed "mechanical." 

 Conscious selection here produces the same result 

 as the unconscious selection exercised by the micro- 

 organism, the enzyme, or the previously existing 

 asymmetric compound. . . . Only the living or- 

 ganism with its asymmetric tissues, or the asym- 

 metric products of the living organism, or the liv- 

 ing intelligence with its conception of asymmetry, 

 can produce this result. Only asymmetry can 

 beget asymmetry. 



I can give no better summation of the 

 views of the opposite schools of thought in 

 regard to the bearing of the subject of 

 asymmetric syntheses upon the doctrine of 

 vitalism than to sum up briefly the main 

 arguments advanced by Professor Japp in 

 an address delivered before the British 

 Association in 1898, as well as the argu- 

 ments advanced by those who criticized the 

 address! This latter number includes such 

 eminent scientific men as Pearson, Spencer, 

 Frankland, Armstrong, Fitzgerald, Errara, 

 Kipping and Pope. 



Japp bases his arguments largely upon 

 the fact that all attempts to effect asym- 

 metric syntheses without the intervention 

 of life either directly or indirectly, have been 

 futile. Neither does he think our failure 

 to do so is due to "a temporary disability 

 which the progress of science may remove. ' ' 

 He calls attention to the fact that all the 

 methods that have been used for separating 

 a racemic form into its active constituents 

 employed living agencies either directly or 



