Consecutive reactions and physiological responses

Consecutive reactions (two irreversible first order steps) 

A number of features of multiple exponential records of reactant concentrations and physiological responses will be discussed in the Ught of specific examples. The subject is best introduced with the simplest model for a process with two irreversible consecutive steps  

Kinetic equations for such a scheme were first derived by Bateman (1910) and Lowry John (1910) and used more specifically by Rutherford, Chadwick Ellis (1930) for the interpretation of their experiments on radioactive decay 

These two sequential processes have half lives of 1622 years (t= 2350 years) and 5500 minutes (t = 8000 minutes) respectively. The rates of decay and formation of the three radioactive elements can be described by 

Clearly equation (4.2.4) for the intermediate B cannot be applied to the special case when fe,2 is exactly equal to 23 since the denominator in the fraction kfj ( 23 12) s then zero. In that case 

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