The proteins and colloid chemistry TOGETHER WITH Archive of offprints by Loeb, Jacques - 1903-1924: Address delivered October 16,1920

1903-1924. First editions.

ARCHIVE OF 44 EARLY 20TH CENTURY OFFPRINTS BY JACQUES LOEB, PIONEERING PHYSIOLOGIST WHO DEMONSTRATED EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT WITHOUT FERTILIZATION; 3 PAPERS INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR.

44 offprints 9 1/2 - 10 1/2 inches tall, in self or printed wrappers, some with notations on covers, text unmarked and most very good, several with age-toning and edgewear. Three inscribed by author: 1) Further observations on the production of parthenogenetic frogs, J. Gen. Physiol. (March 20, 1921), 1920-21, iii, 539-545; 2) The colloidal behavior of proteins, J. Gen. Physiol. (March 20, 1921), 1920-21, iii, 557-564: 3) The proteins and colloid chemistry, Address delivered October 16,1920, Science, 1920, lii, 449-456. The collection is housed in an archival document box with metal reinforced corners.

JACQUES LOEB (1859-1924) was a German-born American physiologist and biologist who trained in Berlin, Munich and Strasburg and joined the faculty of the University of Chicago in 1992. After 10 years, he moved to the University of California, remaining there until 1910 when he moved to the Rockefeller Institute in New York, where he headed a department created for him. He remained at Rockefeller (now Rockefeller University) until his death. Throughout his career, Loeb spent some summers at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, performing experiments on various marine invertebrates. While there, Jacques Loeb performed his most famous experiment, on artificial parthenogenesis. With this experiment, Loeb was able to cause the sea urchins' eggs to begin embryonic development without sperm. The slight chemical modifications of the water in which the eggs were kept, served as the stimulus for the development to begin. Later in 1918, Loeb established and became the first Editor of the Journal of General Physiology (represented by 24 of the offprints offered). Jacques Loeb became one of the most famous scientists in America, widely covered in newspapers and magazines, influencing other important individuals in the scientific world such as B.F. Skinner. He was the model for the character of Max Gottlieb in Sinclair Lewis's Pulitzer-winning novel Arrowsmith, the first great work of fiction to idealize and idolize pure science. Mark Twain also wrote an essay titled "Dr. Loeb's Incredible Discovery", urging the reader not to support a rigid general consensus, but to instead be open to new scientific advances. Loeb was nominated many times for the Nobel Prize but never won.

CONTENTS OF THE COLLECTION: The 44 offprints span the last 23 years of Loeb's career, 3 published the year before his death. As noted by Steve Elliott (The Embryo Project, 2010), "Loeb used his new account of science and scientific explanation marshaling evidence to show that physicochemical biology completely and correctly explained whole organisms and their component processes. For Loeb, science, when properly done, was the activity of visualizing underlying mechanisms of natural processes, and all of nature reduces to elementary bits of matter, molecules, atoms, ions, etc." Thus, 23 of the papers cover physical chemistry of cellular processes and their environment. Loeb also founded the theory of "tropisms" as the basis of the psychology of the lower forms of life. This work is represented by 6 papers on animal and plant heliotropism and geotropism. Loeb also made major contributions to understanding the process of fertilization, and the stimuli to initiate embryogenesis, by experimental parthenogenesis, represented by 6 papers on production of parthenogenetic marine invertebrates and frogs. These concepts were extended to studies of regeneration and its determinants (4 papers). His broad view of biology in the early 20th century is reflected in Biology and war, Science, 1917, xlv, 73-76; and The limitations of biological research, Univ. California Pub., Physiol. (October 5,1903), 1903-04, i, 33-37. LIST OF TITLES AVAILABLE ON REQUEST.