ON P ROOF 276 



equilibrium is impossible, necessarily causes the sep- 

 aration of the two systems, or the dislodgment and 

 escape of the Z-system, from the Y-system, that is, 

 death. 



The difficulty of research on living matter, ac- 

 cording to the theory, is due, first, then, to the 

 idelicacy of the equilibrium between the two con- 

 stituent systems of living matter. 



The second difficulty is that the Z-system (the 

 intraatomic system, life) corresponds to undeter- 

 mined wave-lengths, which wave-lengths, however, 

 would be found to lie outside the range of wave- 

 lengths associated with matter. (See X-rays.) 



The third great difficulty of research on living mat- 

 ter is owing to the fact (of theory) that in the living 

 state the Z-system is screened off by the Y-system. 

 This screening, as the theory conceives it, of course, is 

 unlike the screening off of the nucleus, as the center, or 

 core, of an atom, by the K-shell and other shells of 

 the atom, yet roughly comparable to it, in that, as 

 n research on the atom, the inner constituents of 

 the atom cannot be made to register by the same 

 methods that suffice for the atom as a whole, so the 

 Z-system cannot be made to register by the same 

 methods as the Y-system. It is a question of re- 

 sponding to different wave-lengths, or wave-numbers. 

 The Y-system then screens the Z-system, but screens 



