4 Can Science Explain Life? 



any comments whatever, which may have been an 

 expeditious but not a very honorable method of 

 executing the duties which attach themselves to 

 the office of editorship. In those cases where the 

 editors did give it any sort of serious considera- 

 tion it was condemned as being " unscientific " 

 and "contrary to known facts," and was char- 

 acterized as being only one out of many other 

 "equally good guesses,' ' although the author has 

 not yet received from the critics thereof a single 

 suggestion as to what some of those other equally 

 good guesses might be. In still other cases it 

 was returned with certain evasive excuses, as for 

 example that it was "too technical," although the 

 real reason was probably that the author was not 

 sufficiently noted. 



After the prospects of obtaining publication 

 through the usual channels seemed hopeless, a 

 number of mimeographed pamphlets setting 

 forth the salient features of this hypothesis were 

 prepared and distributed among those who were 

 known to be interested. An abstract notice of 

 them was recorded in Chemical Abstracts, 22, 

 2584 (July 20, 1928). 



The present work is a revision of the author's 

 earlier book on "Spirazines," published in the 

 fall of 1930. An effort has been made to clarify 

 some of the explanations, and a considerable 

 amount of new material has been added. 



