48 Can Science Explain Life? 



The only serious disagreement between these 

 values and those obtained experimentally is in 

 the low value for hydrogen, but that might be at- 

 tributed to the fact that the individual portions of 

 a dissolved protein are very small, so that many 

 additional hydrogen atoms or hydroxyl groups 

 would be required to occupy those valences which, 

 in our continuous three-dimensional hypothetical 

 structure would be used for connecting different 

 portions thereof to one another. 



If the spirazines are connected in the manner 

 shown in Fig. 5, then a representative portion 

 thereof, including one-half of each of the three 

 adjacent spirazines with one methyl group at- 

 tached to each of the alpha carbon atoms, will 

 have the following empirical formula : 



c 9 h 15 n 3 o 3 , 

 and the following percentage composition : 



Carbon Hydrogen Nitrogen Oxygen 

 50.8 7.0 19.7 22.5 



It does not appear that there would be sufficient 

 room for an ethyl group on each of the alpha car- 

 bon atoms, but if we assume that each pair of 

 them is bridged over by a — CH 2 — CH 2 — group, 

 as evidenced by the molecular structures of argi- 



