Reprinted from SCIENCE, June 24, 1938, Vol. 87, No. 2269, pages 563-566.

THE FUTURE OF THE CRELLIN LABORATORY'

By Dr. LINUS PAULING

DIRECTOR OF THE GATES AND CRELLIN LABORATORIES OF THE CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

ABOUT twenty years ago, to house the division of
chemistry and chemical engineering, which was begin-
ning its rapid expansion under the direction of Pro-
fessor Arthur A. Noyes, there was constructed the
Gates Chemical Laboratory, the gift of Mr. Charles W.
Gates and his brother, Mr. Peter G. Gates. This
marked the beginning of the period of development
of the California Institute of Technology as an ad-
vanced scientific school.  The second unit of the Gates
Laboratory was built ten years later. In view of the
personal interests of Professor Noyes, who was the
leader in the introduction of the new methods of
physico-chemical research in America forty years ago
and the founder of the Research Laboratory of Physi-
cal Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Teoh-
nology, it is not surprising that the men whom he
gathered about him were primarily interested in the
field of physical chemistry and that it was in this field
that their principal contributions to knowledge were
made.

Professor Noyes, however, recognized the great im-
portance of organic chemistry, and especially of that
branch of organic chemistry dealing with substances
which are physiologically active, such as vitamins and
hormones ; and he made plans for the development of
the work of the division in this new direction.  In my
file of letters from Professor Noyes there is one, writ-
ten in 1929, which contains a detailed chart of the
course on which the division is now embarking, nine
years later.

It was the interest taken in the work in chemistry
at the institute by Mr. and Mrs. E. W. Crellin, leading
to the construction of the Crellin Laboratory, which
made the initiation of this new program possible.  The
Rockefeller Foundation, recognizing the need for fos-
tering research in America in the border-line field
between chemistry and biology and the suitability of
the California Institute for this work, then made a
large grant of money to support the researches to be
carried on in the Crellin Laboratory during the next
six years.

Organic chemistry was developed into a great science
during the nineteenth century, and it seems probable
that all or nearly all its fundamental principles have
now been formulated. There is, however, a related
field of knowledge of transcendent significance to man-
kind which has barely begun its development. This
1 Address at the dedication of the C&n Laboratory of
~~mi;ry at the California Institute of Technology, May
, *

field deals with the correlation between chemical struc-
ture and physiological activity of those substances,
manufactured in the body or ingested in foodstuffs,
which are essential for orderly growth and the main-
tenance of life, as well as of the many substances which
are useful in the treatment of disease.  These various
physiologically active substances are often extremely
complex. Their chemical investigation has been made
possible only by the development in recent years of
highly refined techniques, permitting the organic chem-
ist to determine the molecular structure of a very
complex substance, even though it may be available
only in minute amounts. In his attack on a recal-
citrant molecule he may find it necessary to strengthen
his forces by calling on the physical chemist, who dur-
ing the past quarter century has developed powerful
methods of studying the structure of molecules.

There are many ways in which chemistry is eon-
tributing to physiology and medicineby the develop-
ment of new general anesthetics, such as ethylene, vinyl
ether and cyelopropane, of local anesthetics and of
pharmaeeutioals of all kinds, including such substances
as sulfanilamide, with its extraordinary efficacy in the
treatment of streptococcal infections-and continued
progress will be made in these fields in the coming
years. Considering the great advances in the study
of vitaminsand hormones since the time a decade ago
when the synthesis of not one vitamin had been
achieved, we may predict that success will soon reward
the men who are now carrying on the attack on vitamin
E and that many important discoveries will be made.

These substances are complex-containing twenty,
thirty or forty atoms in the molecule--but not so com-
plex as to make the determination of their structure
by existent methods impossible. There is, however, a
class of substances of the most extreme importance of
life, the proteins, whose molecules contain thousands
or tens of thousands of atoms. The proteins occur
everywhere and serve the most varied purposes. The
class includes such varied substances as pepsin, hemo-
globin, albumen, globulin, keratin and insulin. The
organic chemist has not succeeded in determining the
configuration of any protein molecule, and it is doubt-
ful that his methods alone can be applied with success,
because the forces which hold the molecule in its char-
acteristic configuration are probably not the primary
valence forces with which he is accustomed to deal.
Although there has as yet been little indication of a
method of attack which might be successful, I feel that


2

the important steps in the solution of this great prob-
lem will be taken during the next ten years, through
the cooperation of the organic chemist and his col-
leagues in associated sciences.

In the Crellin Laboratory the organic chemists
occupy the second and third floors and the auxiliary
rooms on the roof.  Conveniently close, occupying the
first floor, basement and sub-basement, are the physical
chemists, with their appliances for the study of molecu-
lar structure by the methods of photochemistry, mag-
netochemistry, spectroscopy and x-ray and electron
diffraction.

For twenty-five years Professor Howard J. Lucas
alone has ably carried the burden of instruction in
organic chemistry at the institute, and he and, more
recently, Dr. J. B. Koepfli have worked effectively on
a research program. During the present year there
has been increased activity in this field. There was
given in March and April a series of lectures on the
chemistry of vitamins by Dr. Alexander R. Todd, of
the Lister Institute for Medical Research in London,
who came here as visiting lecturer, and throughout
the year chemical studies on vitamins and hormones
were carried on in association with Professor F. W.
Went and his colleagues in the division of biology.
Dr. Edwin R. Buchman, who was associated with R. R.
Williams in the structural investigation and synthesis
of vitamin B, and who has been carrying on his studies

of analogues of this substance at the institute, has been
given appointment as research associate in organic
chemistry ; and Dr. Carl Niemann, of the University
of Wisconsin and the Rockefeller Institute for Medical
Research, has been appointed assistant professor of
organic chemistry. Dr. Niemann, whose investigations
have dealt with the chemistry of proteins and carbo-
hydrates, is at present studying at the University of
London and will take up residence at the Institute in
July.

For the satisfactory completion of the Crellin Labo-
ratory credit is due to the architects, Mayers, Murray
and Phillip, and their representative Mr. Wayne
Soverns, to Professor Robert A. Millikan, Professor
W. B. Munro, chairman of the building committee,
and Professor R. R. Martel, of that committee, to
Professors W. N. Lacey and A. 0. Beckman, who rep-
resented the division during the preparation of the
plans and the construction of the building, to Mr.
William C. Crowell, the contractor, and his able as-
sistants, to Mr. Wesley Hertenstein, supervising engi-
neer, and Mr. L. G. Fenner, superintendent of electri-
cal construction, and to many others who contributed
to the work.  To all these men, and especially to Mr.
and Mrs. Crellin, I express the thanks of the division
of chemistry and chemical engineering, and its promise
to make effective use of the new laboratory.