ees
(APR 80 1980:

0
CE oF THe nes

     
 

Yale Univer sity New Haven, Connecticut 06520

 

JOSEPH S. FRUTON
Eugene Higgins Professor. .
of Biochemistry

350 Kline Biology Tower

April 28, 1980

President Joshua Lederberg
The Rockefeller University
New York, New York 10021

Dear Josh:

Your query about the history of the comparative approach to
the unravelling of metabolic pathways and physiological mechanisms
is a challenging one. I cannot think of a recent scholarly treatment
of this topic, but rather than delay my reply by looking for such an
article, I offer the following recollections and references, which I
hope will be of use to you.

Ed Tatum and I often talked about comparative biochemistry,
and you may recall that the course he gave at Yale had that title.
At that time I preferred "general biochemistry", which includes the
comparative approach, because it seemed to me that "comparative
biochemistry", at least as presented by Baldwin and Florkin, promised
too much. Here I was following the tradition of "general physiology"
as expounded by Claude Bernard and Jacques Loeb, among others.

Whatever the relative merits of the two terms, there can be
little doubt that Ed derived his interest in the comparative approach
from Van Niel, who in turn was strongly influenced by Kluyver, in whose
writings I have found the most incisive statements about the importance
of this approach. That tradition, which of course goes back to
Winogradsky and Beijerinck, emphasized the value of studying micro-
organisms for the understanding of metabolic processes common to all
biological forms, and of exploring the specific variations in these
basic processes as found in different microbes. No doubt your library
has a copy of "Albert Jan Kluyver, His Life and Work", edited by A. F.
Kamp et al., and published by North-Holland Press in 1959. It contains
several of Kluyver's essays on his concept of biochemical unity and
diversity, and also a lovely discussion by Van Niel (especially on
pp. 114 ff.). Another book is the one by Kluyver and Van Niel "The
Microbe's Contribution to Biology" (Harvard University Press, 1956).

Jv
Fle *
President Joshua Lederberg
Page 2
April 28, 1980

In his introduction to Baldwin's little book "An Introduction
to Comparative Biochemistry" (Ist Ed., 1937; 4th Ed., 1964), Hopkins
wrote of biochemistry that "One of its ultimate tasks is to decide on
what, from a chemical standpoint, is essential for these manifestations
[of visible physiological processes] as distinct from what is secondary
and specific." Baldwin and also Florkin have developed this theme,
although their own research dealt largely with invertebrate organisms,
and with the occurrence of substances rather than with the metabolic
processes in which they were involved. This approach goes back at
least to 1903, with the appearance of Otto von Furth's "Vergleichende
chemische Physiologie der niederer Tiere." Aside from Florkin's little
1944 book "L'Evolution Biochimique", he has also written about this in
the introductory chapter (with H. S. Mason) in Vol. I of the series
“Comparative Biochemistry “(Academic Press, 1960). Florkin's work and
writings are in a characteristic Franco-Belgian tradition, with Léon
Fredericq and (more recently) Jean Roche as other major figures.

I suspect that much of this is well-known to you, but perhaps it
includes some useful items. I shall be glad to help further, if I can,

after my return from Europe in the middle of July. I leave in a few
weeks, and am busy preparing lectures to give over there.

Yours ever,

in