Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/156

152 type or another are integral parts of every proteid molecule, and when their chemical constitution is made quite clear, much will have been accomplished toward a fuller understanding of the more complicated forms.

It needs no imagination to foresee what a full knowledge of the chemical constitution of all types of proteid matter will mean for the physiologist and physiological chemist. Much that is now cloudy and uncertain in our understanding of cell and tissue metabolism, in our comprehension of nutritive changes in general, of digestive proteolysis and of intracellular autolysis, will become clear as crystal. The problem, however, is not a simple one, but is exceedingly complex, for it is to be remembered that just as the individual proteids differ from each other in superficial reactions and characteristics, so do they undoubtedly differ in their inner structure. Hence, we must expect to find variations in the make-up of the individual molecules, and it is one of the most important problems of to-day to ascertain the nature of these chemical variations, to recognize the individual groups that give character to the molecules and to learn how these groups are bound together to make the typical proteid of this and that tissue or organ. The solution of this problem promises much for the advancement of physiological chemistry, but it holds out the promise of even more for the good of physiology in general, since there is bound up in the chemical structure of the proteid molecules a full and complete explanation of tissue changes, and of many metabolic phenomena which to-day are as sealed volumes.

The development of our knowledge regarding the cell as a physiological unit has led to a fuller recognition of the importance of discriminating between the primary and secondary cell constituents. As a result, the physiological chemist has come to realize the necessity of more exact knowledge as to the nature and distribution of the primary components of cells, because of the bearing this knowledge may have upon the general question of how far the lines of chemical decomposition characteristic of each group of cells are dependent upon the character of the anabolic processes by which that particular cell protoplasm is formed, and how far the peculiar katabolic or retrogressive changes of that group of cells are due to outside influences, exerted by specific nerve fibers, or by the character of the blood and lymph stream. The physiological chemist would know whether the secret of glandular secretion, of tissue changes, of metabolic activity, is to be found in the particular forms of protoplasm that enter into the structure of the component cells, whether it is associated in any way with some inherent quality of the primary cell constituents.

There is something marvelous in the unerring certainty with which a given group of cells performs its work, never deviating a hair's breadth