Abstract
AMERICAN universities are fortunate in being able to use the income derived from various legacies to attract distinguished European savants across the Atlantic to lecture to them. Prof. Heinrich Wieland of Munich gave six Silliman memorial lectures at Yale University last year, which are now available in both English and German in book form. The lectures follow familiar lines in this subject, dealing with oxidation and autoxida-tion in general, the activation of hydrogen, acetic acid fermentation, the dehydrogenase of milk and the catalytic effect of iron. The subject is expounded in a clear manner, and it is useful to have Wieland's explanation of it in English, particularly as much of the original German literature on the subject is, for some unknown reason, somewhat difficult to follow. It is remarkable how varied are the ways in which the simple oxygen molecule reacts with different substances and how much has still to be discovered before an adequate understanding of what occurs during the oxidation processes in the living cell can be achieved. All that has so far been accomplished forms but an introduction to this problem.
On the Mechanism of Oxidation.
Prof.
Heinrich
Wieland
By. (Yale University: Mrs. Hepsa Ely Silliman Memorial Lectures.) Pp. x + 124. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University PressLondon: Oxford University Press, 1932.) 15s. 6d. net.
Über den Verlauf der Oxydationsvorgänge.
Prof. Dr.
Heinrich
Wieland
Von. Pp. viii + 96. (Stuttgart: Ferdinand Enke, 1933.) 7.80 gold marks.
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On the Mechanism of Oxidation Über den Verlauf der Oxydationsvorgänge . Nature 132, 85 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132085a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132085a0