276 W HAT 18 LIFE 



it merely by reason of registering more readily (more 

 readily, that is, according to present methods of 

 research) . 



These are the chief difficulties that according to 

 the theory are inseparable from research on pro- 

 toplasm, and that definitely limit experimentation. 



However, concerning the problem of proof: It is 

 plain that if the theory of life that has been presented 

 is true, that is, answers to the facts, then at death 

 the escape of the Z-system (life) from the Y-system 

 (the body) must take place. For — once more — as 

 life is defined as the immaterial, intraatomic sys- 

 tem, of the organism, so death is defined as the 

 separation and escape of this quantity from the 

 organism. Therefore, to determine conclusively 

 whether life is a quantity, as the theory describes, 

 requires research upon living matter, or an organism, 

 at the moment of death. For if the death of an or- 

 ganism indeed means the separation of a definite 

 quantity from the organism, then that quantity can 

 be made to register, at least at the moment of death, 

 by adequate means. The crucial experiment (a bi- 

 ologist, physiologist, having prepared a suitable sub- 

 ject) consists in causing death, and testing for and 

 measuring the Z-system, the quantity life, that ac- 

 cording to the theory, becomes separated from the 

 body, the atomic system, the Y-system, at the mo- 



