NEW OBSERVATIONS ON LIPOIDS

The existence of a group of complex fats or fatlike compounds, long ago recognized in lecithin and more recently designated as phosphatids or phospholipins, has been the occasion for much speculation and even some semiscientific therapy in relation thereto. The facts that certain of these chemically obscure organic phosphorus compounds seem to be present in every living cell, that they abound in the nervous structures in large proportions, that they appear to play a part in fat metabolism and transport, that they are concerned in hemolysis and coagulation of the blood—such information has tended to fix attention on the word phosphatid and what it represents.¹ It is not surprising, therefore, that a widespread search has been made to locate and identify the phosphatids in different tissues and structures of both animal and vegetable origin.

The outcome of these investigations has been to make it seem more than probable that