Proteins : lectures given in the United States of America in 1924 / by S.P.L. Sørensen.

  • Sørensen, S. P. L. (Soren Peter Lauritz), 1868-1939.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Proteins : lectures given in the United States of America in 1924 / by S.P.L. Sørensen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    One of the most important questions today concerning pro- tein studies is how far it is possible to apply to protein solu- tions the theories derived from the study of true solutions; or whether such colloid solutions as those of protein are so di- verging in their behavior from ordinary real solutions that to parallel the behavior of colloid solutions and true solutions must be considered inadvisable, or even warned against, as Wolfgang Ostwald has often done. I believe there is a growing tendency to think that Ostwald is not right in his view of the matter; that the need is simply to make it possible, by improved technique, and particularly by the development of more exact analytical methods, to deal with protein solutions in accordance with general chemical and physico-chemical principles. We cannot at present enter upon a more particular discus- sion of the great work already done in this direction. I must be content to mention a few names in order to throw some light on the nature of the researches under discussion. The investigations of Harriette Chick and C. W. Martin1 on the coagulation of protein have demonstrated, among other things, that the denaturation process is a monomolecular pro- 1 Chick and Martin, J. Physiol., 40:404 [1910]; 43:1 [1911]; 45:61, 261 (1912].