Main description:

This assembly of lectures, each on a major aspect of the development of biochemistry, should appeal to anyone with an interest in the history of science and the nature of living things. Seven of the eight lectures are by eminent biochemists and describe the development of their own subject from the inside; the eighth is a more general one by a professional historian of science. They contain a good deal of information not readily available elsewhere and do not require a special knowledge of biochemistry. The lectures were originally given as a series, over a period of several years, under the auspices of the department of the History and Philosophy of Science in the University of Cambridge.

Contents:

1. The growth of our knowledge of photosynthesis Robert Hill; 2. The history of enzymes and of biological oxidations Malcolm Dixon; 3. The development of microbiology E. F. Gale; 4. Some biochemical signposts in the progress of neurology Kendal Dixon; 5. The evolution of ideas about animal hormones F. G. Young; 6. The discovery of vitamins Leslie J. Harris; 7. The historical foundations of modern biochemistry Mikulas Teich; 8. Some lone pioneers of biochemistry in the nineteenth century Sir Rudolph Peters.