THE ORIGIN OF LIFE: A CHEMIST'S FANTASY 325 



My position is that while we do not attempt to account for that 

 we do not understand or cannot express clearly, all that we do 

 understand is well within our compass to explain ; moreover, 

 that our power of understanding is growing every day. 



I do not see how Prof. Schafer and those of us who are with 

 him can be said to have ignored the actual fact of the mainten- 

 ance in "organic unity" of the numerous physical and chemical 

 processes which we can distinguish within the living body. 

 It is far from being the fact that — "The more detailed and exact 

 our knowledge has become of the marvellous intricacies of 

 structure and function within the living body the more difficult 

 or rather the more completely impossible has any physico- 

 chemical theory of nutrition and reproduction become." Or that 

 " the difficulty stands out in its fullest prominence in connexion 

 with the phenomena of reproduction and heredity." 



To make my meaning clear, let me go back to my wig. 

 Assuming the primordial wig to have come into existence 

 through a series of lucky, fortuitous accidents, assisted by 

 certain peculiarities inherent in the primary material and 

 favoured by the special conditions of the environment — wigs 

 have ever since been made much on the pattern of the first wig 

 though variations have taken place from time to time. 



Each new wig is constructed on top of an old wig and when 

 a new wig is ready, " division " takes place and the new wig is 

 removed to a new "cell" together with a supply of tools and 

 materials required for wig-making. According to the material 

 available, while the general pattern is maintained intact, varia- 

 tions may be introduced into individual curls. But two kinds 

 of wigs are to be thought of : simple wigs — male and female — 

 and compound wigs, the latter being made by superposing two 

 simple wigs after 'such alterations have been made in each 

 as to permit of their superposition : obviously, when the com- 

 pound wigs are separated and worn as simple wigs, the new 

 simple wigs differ somewhat from the old though they are very 

 like them in general character ; also it will be clear that all sorts 

 of combinations of simple wigs may be made. 



Obviously my metaphorical wigs correspond to nuclei and 

 the tools and materials used in making them to the cytoplasmic 

 elements — assuming that the nucleus is the formative element 

 of the cell. Having thus put wigs on the green, I trust that 

 I have met the challenge given by Dr. Haldane and that it will 



