54 Can Science Explain Life? 



constantly borne in mind that the various units of 

 living matter are not rigid crystalline structures 

 but are plastic chemical fabrics which are almost 

 continually in a state of metamorphosis and that 

 it is the specific behavior of living matter and not 

 its exact form or appearance which is carried on 

 through successive generations. It is impossible 

 to represent adequately on paper the various de- 

 formations of which the spirazine structure is 

 capable, but it should be noted that besides mere 

 flattening of the protoplasmic structures in one 

 direction or another, there is also the possibility 

 of longitudinal straightening out of the spirazines 

 themselves, which can take place without the dis- 

 ruption of either the peptide linkings or the con- 

 necting complexes at the various junctions, so that 

 almost every conceivable change of shape is pos- 

 sible with these chemical fabrics without any 

 mutilation of the pattern which is characteristic 

 of the species. 



