ON PRESENTING MY THEORY 39 



were carefully taken into account. Quite needless 

 to say, I myself had searched painstakingly to deter- 

 mine, as well as I was able, whether any facts could 

 be found to be adverse to or discordant with my con- 

 clusions. I found none. Nor have any such facts 

 been brought to my attention, though I especially 

 invited criticism on this point. 



Inasmuch, then, as I am not aware of the exist- 

 ence of any set of facts or single fact at variance 

 with my conclusions, I may be permitted to claim 

 that they deserve to rank as a theory, in the use of 

 the term as previously defined. 



Making that claim, I of course immediately face 

 the inevitable question concerning proof: "What 

 proof of your theory is possible?" In reply to this 

 question I insist that (as shown in the chapter On 

 Proof) the central proposition of my theory {the general 

 law of the structure of living matter, and the definition 

 of life and of death) is amenable to proof. It is subject 

 to direct quantitative physical laboratory test. And, 

 so far from wishing to evade the question of proof, 

 I devote an entire chapter to its consideration. I 

 do not believe that anyone can insist more strongly 

 that there is need for laboratory proof of the theory 

 than I have insisted, and shall continue to insist 

 until the physical laboratory yields its answer. 



However, the fact that the theory has not yet been 



