Spieazines 45 



cules will continue endwise, and if the connecting 

 complexes are of the proper kind their mutual 

 repulsion will eventually become sufficient to 

 overpower the cohesive forces of the spirals them- 

 selves so that after the organism becomes of a 

 certain length it will spontaneously divide into 

 two halves without the intervention of any exter- 

 nal forces. 



Cell division may also be attributed to a differ- 

 ence in molecular structure between the outer 

 portions and the interiors of the bacteria, chro- 

 mosomes, or other elementary units of living 

 matter. As has already been explained, the outer 

 portions probably contain many double junctions 

 with pairs of sulphur atoms in the places of the 

 gamma carbon atoms, whereas the interiors must 

 be composed mostly of triple junctions. It is 

 highly improbable that two such radically differ- 

 ent structures would occupy exactly equal vol- 

 umes, and since the surface layers are incapable 

 of shifting longitudinally upon the interior struc- 

 tures there will be a gradual increase in tension 

 of the less voluminous structure as the organism 

 grows in length, so that eventually it will become 

 torn in two. This process is clearly illustrated by 

 cell division of a bacillus. If the internal struc- 

 tures are more voluminous than the surface struc- 

 tures, cell division will begin by the formation of 



