In 1969 a research group based both in England and West Germany and another group in Switzerland reported the synthesis and analysis of chiral acetic acid a species that contain a methyl group that is chiral by virtue of the presence of a proton a deutron and a tritium atom. They showed how this material could be applied to the determination of the stereochemistry at the methyl group of the enzymatic condensation of acetate with glyoxylate to form malate. This research has remained largely unappreciated in the chemical literature for more than 30 years and it is the pupose of this paper to present to a wider audience this tour de force thet involves tracer level of materials the ultimate stereochemical phenomena isotope effect and the exquisite specificity of enzymatic reactions.