Evening star., 1937-04-12
HUDSON REVEALS
CHEMICAL FIND
Discovery Opens Way to
Production of Substances
Non-Existent in Nature.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
staff Correspondent oil The Star.

CHAPEL HILL, N c.. April 12-
A chemical discovery which opens the
way to production of hundreds of
thousands of new substances which
do not exist in nature was announced
before the American Chemical Society
here this afternoon by Dr. Claude S.
Hudson, professor of chemistry at the
National Institute of Health in Wash
ington
Due to its possibilities IN the crea-
ton of new medical and food products
none of which, DR.. Hudson en-
nhasizes have yet been realized-the
discovery is considered likely to be
revolutionary in the whole field of
organic chemistry.
The Washington chemist long has
been recognized as one of the worlds
foremost authorities on the chemistry
of sugars and starches, the basic food
materials which are burned" in the
body and thus provide the fuel for
animal life. Most of those now known
exist IN nature.
Makes New Discovery.
In an interview, it has been very
difficult to get sugars and Starches
to combine with anything else, They
are naturally rather inert substances
from which it is difficult TO build
up new materials. In the Washing
ton laboratory, however, he has found
new way, IN itself extremely COM
plicated and understood only by or
ganlc chemists, by which certain
sugars can be combined with oxygen,
so that they are broken down into
very reactive chemical substances
known as aldehydes. BY a further
step IN oxidation he produces various
acids.
These aldehydes and acids have not
hitherto existed. The aldehydes
especially DR.. Hudson says, will COM
bine with hundreds of substances
with which the original sugars and
starches could not be persuaded to
fraternize,
The chemical structure of these
sldehydes is known precisely. The
chemist can hang on other molecules
at different points, each combination
constituting a substance hitherto
unknown in the world.
The aldehydes and acids. DR.. Hud-
son stresses, are quite different in
their chemical structure from the life
fuels out of which they are derived
but these contain everything included
in the new products, with the addi-
ton of oxygen,
Have Long Sought Way.
Organic chemists the world over
have long sought way to synthesize
such aldehydes as building materials
for more complex substances, but
DR.. Hudson said today, their quest
probably has been impossible. They
can be obtained only by the new
oxidation process.
The chief interest of the Public
Health Service, DR.. Hudson said, has
been in the possibility OF creating
new medical preparations containing
the basic elements of the sugars ano
starches, in all sorts of combinations
There is also the prospect of Great
1ns new foods, although nobody
knows at present how they might
react in the body.
A new method of chemical analysis
by which it is possible to detect
metals in water in concentrations Of
only one part to half billion was
announced by DR.. Irving Langmuir,
vice president OF the General Electric
Co.
The method consists in placing on
the surface of the water a drop of
3 stearlc acid, an oll-like material de-
rived from animal fats. This has the
property of spreading over the water
in film only the diameter of one
z nolecule-or about one en-milhonth
of an inch-in thickness. Then this
oll-uke film is SKINNED from the
water and light reflected against it..
The presence of the most in
intestinal amount of a metal, DR..
Langmuir finds, produces a detectable
difference in the reflected light, which
varies specifically with the sort of
metal with which the water is con-
taminated. This finding, organic
chemists attending the session said
may give a clearer understanding Of
the basic mechanisms of life. 1t is
known that very minute amounts of
metallic elements in the body have
very far-reaching effects. Many be-
lieve that the walls of cells, of which
the body is composed, are oil-like
films much like that of stearic acid
on water. Hence, there may come a
new understanding of the ways metals
permeate into cells, sometimes with
highly poisonous effects.