Enzymes [antikvár]

PREFACE. This book differs in two respects from the other members of the series to which it belongs. It lays no claim to completeness. For an exhaustive account of the subject the student is referred to Oppenheimer and Kuhn's monumental Die Fermente, while a very full treatment of many aspects may be found in Euler's Chemie der Enzyme. I do not propose to treat of the biology of enzymes, either from the point of view of their function or formation ; still less of their applications in the laboratory or factory. Even so the account of their purely chemical side will be inadequate. Secondly, the subject has already been treated in this series by the late Sir Wm. Bayliss. In view of the great additions to our knowledge in the last few years a demand has arisen for a new work on the subject. The Nature of Enzyme Action, like all Bayliss' work, was strongly individual, and could not have been brought up to date without at least a partial loss of that individuality. Moreover, Bayliss' book was to somé extent a polemic for the view now universally accepted, that enzymes are catalysts, and for the thermodynamical implications of such a view, which are not always so fully recognized. As such it is in no sense superseded by the present book, which, to a large extent, attempts to build on the ground cleared by Bayliss. In order to keep the book within reasonable dimensions, I have been forced to assume a considerable knowledge of organic and physical chemistry in its readers, but I have added an appendix to Chapter VI. on somé recent work on carbohydrate chemistry which is not yet wholly incorporated into the textbooks. I have dealt in a very summary manner