INTRODUCTION 15 



is rather rapidly disappearing. The work of Lohnis 

 and Enderlein on the life cycles of bacteria; that of 

 Church on autotrophic flagellates; that of d'Herelle 

 and his numerous followers on bacteriophage; and 

 the biochemical studies of Baly and Benjamin 

 Moore and their co-workers, demonstrate that con- 

 siderable breaches are being made in the wall around 

 this forbidden field of research. This wall was 

 constructed with the greatest solidity about the 

 middle of the nineteenth century, and then thought 

 by its builders likely to last for all times. But the 

 cement was not quite up to specifications. 



So from a biological point of view the present is a 

 propitious time for the appearance of Mrs. Gaskell's 

 original and ingenious speculation. Unless a miracle 

 happens, whereby normal human behavior is tem- 

 porarily altered, this book will doubtless receive its 

 due measure of the violent opposition which every 

 really new idea regularly receives. Its most impor- 

 tant part deals with concepts which lie outside the 

 field of critical competence of most biologists. 

 Furthermore, with a very few exceptions, biolo- 

 gists are entirely unfamiliar with a mode of thought — 

 a point of view — which applies the data and theories 

 of atomic physics to what they as biologists regard 

 as specific, concrete realities, namely the phenomena 

 of life. It is one thing to listen admiringly to the 



^^ 



