The Enzyme Theory and the Origin of Biochemistry

BIOCHEMISTRY IS ONE of those fascinating but problematic "new sciences" that have appeared with some regularity in the history of science. It came quite suddenly on the scene in the early years of this century, with a new name and intimations of new insights into the nature of life processes. Yet it is an open question whether there is really such a thing as a "new science." Close examination invariably has revealed such a wealth of precedent and preparation for change that the newness of new sciences tends to disappear in the grinding continuity of history. Moreover, the notion of a new science has lent itself all too readily to the naively heroic histories of scientific progress. The older historiography obviously has neglected the complex, uneven ways in which new ideas become accepted as the basis for new disciplines. Earlier presentations of this essay have evoked comments that phrases like "new sciences" were best avoided altogether, and that new sciences are strictly social phenomena attending the establishment of new professional niches. Yet we are left with the undisputed fact that at certain points in history groups of scientists have strongly felt that they were participating in something new, and these feelings must be taken seriously, if not at face value. These nodal points, at which the feeling of change has been deep and widespread, are nonetheless real and important even though that feeling was not based on balanced historical hindsight. It is the historian's task to sort out the complex intellectual and social changes that led these groups to feel that they were doing something new and that their activities required the establishment of new social arrangements for doing them. This essay is an attempt to do just that for the science of biochemistry, which about 1900 began to be aware of itself as a distinct discipline. I will argue that this new science was associated with a new general theory of life processes, based on a new awareness of the importance of enzymes, and that this new view can be traced to several definite events which occurred in the 1890s. The enzyme theory was the hallmark of the new biochemistry; it was a program for biochemical research and was the common ground of the diverse group of men who around 1900 began to call themselves "biochemists." This intellectual unity provides a basis for subsequent studies of the establishment of biochemistry as a profession in the years 1900-1920.