BIOLOGICAL ORDER 



The formula "the living being reproduces its kind" expresses the 

 fact that each organism produces its own specific macromolecules. 

 Metabolism is a prerequisite for assimilation. In the last analysis, 

 assimilation precludes and includes metabolism, and the interplay of 

 specific structures and functions. It corresponds, at the molecular 

 level as well as at the level of the organism, to synthesis, growth, 

 and reproduction. true to type and to genetic continuity. In this 

 sense, assimilation is certainly a discriminative feature of life. 

 Assimilation is correlative to life, and life is correlative to assimi- 

 lation. As a matter of fact, an organism can reproduce only if it is 

 endowed with the power to assimilate. Reproduction includes assimi- 

 lation. But the words reproduction and asshnilation will take their 

 full significance only when something has been learned concerning 

 biological specificity. Anyhow, the notions of life, organism, re- 

 production, and assimilation cannot be separated. 



REFERENCES 



Brachet, J., and Mirsky, A. E., eds. (1959). The Cell - Bioche?nistry, Physiology, 



Morphology. Academic Press, New York and London. 

 Dobell, C. C. (1911). The principles of protistology. Arch. Protistenk., 23, 



269-3 10. 

 Dobell, C. C. (1932). Antony van Leeuwenhoek a?7d His ''Little Animals." 



John Bale, Sons & Danielsson, London. 

 McElroy, W. D., and Glass, B., eds. (1957). A Symposiimi on the Cheinical 



Basis of Heredity. The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore. 

 Schrodinger, E. (1944). What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell. 



The University Press, Cambridge. 

 Stanier, R. Y., Doudoroff, M., and Adelberg, E. A. (1957). The Microbial 



World. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood CliflFs, N. J. 

 Szent-Gyorgyi, A. (1948). Nature of Life. Academic Press, New York. 



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