Spirazines 23 



strongly basic group held firmly in close proxim- 

 ity to a strongly acid group but yet not permitted 

 to neutralize the latter, which appears to account 

 for the remarkable ability of living matter or its 

 enzymes to digest all sorts of complex food mate- 

 rials and to appropriate the resulting substances 

 spontaneously and continuously for the building 

 up of its own molecular structures, for no matter 

 how many additional amino acid molecules are 

 assimilated the configuration at the end of the 

 spirazine remains the same. 



The similarity in form and appearance of a 

 polypeptide spiral to a bacillus, a spirillum, or a 

 connective tissue or nerve fiber will be apparent. 

 It should be capable of growing endwise by as- 

 similation of additional amino acid molecules, and 

 as long as the spiral form is maintained it will 

 possess a certain definite and characteristic mor- 

 phology. It must remain permanently right- 

 handed or left-handed which will account for the 

 optical activity always exhibited by substances 

 obtained from living tissues, and if transverse 

 fission occurs, each half should retain the right- 

 handedness or the left-handedness and the cross- 

 sectional pattern of the original structure, so as 

 to exhibit in a very simple manner the process of 

 reproduction with the inheritance of parental 

 characteristics. 



