Defensive Ferments of the Animal Organism/Preface to the English Edition
Preface to the English Edition.
It is more than three years since Abderhalden first published his results in regard to the sero-diagnosis of pregnancy. In the course of his general studies on the nature and properties of the ferments in the blood, and on their relations to metabolism, he came across an instance of their specific action, which suggested the possibility of diagnosing the condition of pregnancy by their means. And it was on the basis of the same methods as had been employed years before by himself and his followers in their preliminary theoretical investigations, that he was led to the great discovery of the demonstration of specific ferments in the blood-serum; that is to say, by the use of the optical method and of the dialysation process.
In view of the possibility of the practical application, in medicine, of these new methods of research, for the purpose of making differential diagnoses and of testing the functions of organs in various diseases, they have been taken up by many members of the medical profession. They were first employed by the gynæcologist; but there is now hardly any branch of medicine left in which the application of these new methods has not been attempted, and in the course 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.
J. O. Gavronsky.
7, Cambridge Terrace,
Regent's Park.
February 23, 1914.