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THE HARVEIAN ORATION, 1903 45

alcohols and proteids. A more recent attempt in the same direction has been made by Verworn, 1 who describes the “ Biogens,” as he terms them, as real chemical and physical entities, each consisting of a benzene nucleus, round which are arranged various groups of atoms, the idea being arrived at by a study of the metabolic products of the organism. The extreme lability of the biogen Verworn attributes to the incorporation of oxygen in the molecule, the absence of which rather than the accumulation of waste products he regards as responsible for the cessation of the irritability of the bioplasm. It may be further observed that it is in the cell-protoplasm, and not in the nucleus that this observer locates the biogens.

Whilst fully realising the purely speculative character of these conceptions, the provisional use that they may be in comprehending the activities of the living organism is apparent. For many of these complex processes the knowledge of the chemical anatomy of bioplasm is as essential as the gross anatomy of the organs concerned is for an understanding of the circulation of the blood. As the chemist and the physicist find in the atomic theory and its developments an explanation of the properties or functions of

1 Die Biogen-hypothese , 1903. See also Nature , Feb. 26th, 1903.

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