Page:Defensive Ferments of the Animal Organism (3rd edition).djvu/13

 of time interest in these new weapons of research has rapidly increased. Much has been done, for the popularization of these methods, by the kindness which has been shown by Abderhalden and his assistants to all those who were willing to acquaint themselves with the rather complicated technique involved in them. He found room in his institute for all who wanted to come; every written inquiry was promptly answered; and reagents, such as placenta-albumen and peptone, in the preparation of which some difficulty is met with, were freely supplied from his laboratory.

The conception of "harmony and disharmony" has been employed by us, in order to represent the meaning we attach to Abderhalden's terms "fremd" and "eigen." These phrases, though they have been translated literally by some, do not seem to us to be amenable to direct translation.

In presenting this translation of the latest edition of Abderhalden's work on defensive ferments, I have been inspired by the hope of being able to excite or further, in regard to this important line of modern research, the interest of many to whom the German text may be inaccessible.

2em 7, Cambridge Terrace,

Regent's Park.

February 23, 1914.