THE UNIQUENESS OF THE INDIVIDUAL 



which will shatter cells to pieces in less than one minute is that 

 corresponding to a power output of about 50 watts, which, I 

 suppose, is about the power output of a large symphony 

 orchestra when giving its patrons full value for money. The 

 frequency is not a matter of great moment; something between 

 five and ten octaves above Middle C will do, i.e. a frequency 

 extending from just above that which is audible to human 

 adults to that which would correspond to a piano key lying 

 three and a half feet beyond the top end of the piano. Cells 

 which have been exposed to ultrasonic irradiation are shattered 

 into minute fibres or rounded particles, but on injection they 

 can still cause transplantation immunity, i.e. they can cause an 

 animal to behave towards a homograft exactly as if it had 

 received and rejected a living homograft before. 



The next problem was to find out whereabouts in the cell 

 the antigenic matter was located — whether in the nucleus (an 

 extremely far fetched possibility) or in the remaining substance 

 of the cell. We showed beyond doubt that the antigens were 

 confined exclusively to the nucleus. More than that, we have 

 good evidence (not at this moment quite conclusive) that the 

 antigenic substances are desoxyribonucleoproteins. The im- 

 portance of this discovery is that desoxyribonucleoprotein is 

 the chemical nexus of heredity, and is the stuff of which 

 chromosomes are made. 



A nucleoprotein is a salt-like compound between nucleic 

 acid and protein, mainly basic protein. If it is to fulfil its 

 genetical function, one or other of its two ingredients, if not 

 both, must be sufficiently commodious and versatile to act as 

 the scrupulously exact and detailed invoice of all the inborn 

 diversity of mice or of men. Modern opinion inclines to the 

 view that it is the nucleic acid which fulfils this immeasurably 

 important function. The nucleic acids have been recognized as 

 chemical entities for more than sixty years, but the crucial 

 observation which began to shape the modern opinion of their 



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