be assumed that physiological processes depend in some 

 way on the chemical activity of living matter, one would 

 think that such processes would be disturbed or disrupted 

 whenever additional amino acid residues are assimilated. 

 Thus in the spiral polypeptide structure as proposed in 

 1927, assimilation would have to take place by the addi- 

 tion of one amino acid residue after another so as to build 

 up the spiral by successive increments of half a convolu- 

 tion at a time. This would bring the free end of the spiral 

 alternately to diametrically opposite sides, which would 

 produce a continual change in the external chemical con- 

 figuration at the free end of a cluster of spirals. Such a 

 continual fluctuation in the chemical configuration of liv- 

 ing matter would seriously interfere with physiological 

 functioning. A satisfactory way out of this difficulty was 

 found in 1937 when it was discovered that the polypeptide 

 spiral may consist of two polypeptide chains instead of 

 one, so that the assimilation of amino acid residues can 

 take place simultaneously at diametrically opposite sides 

 of the spiral. (Life a Vortex Phenomenon, p. 7; The 

 Scientific Press, Aug. and Dec, 1937.) 



MAGNETISM AND LIFE 



The phenomenon of magnetism probably plays an im- 

 portant part in life processes. The adaptability of mag- 

 netism for simulating the fundamental biological and bio- 

 chemical processes has been frequently commented upon, 

 but until recently it has never been seriously proposed 

 as the real cause of such processes, for the obvious reason 

 that living matter shows no response to a magnetic field. 

 However, a piece of glass (or any other transparent ma- 

 terial) is also not magnetic, and yet when it is placed in a 

 magnetic field it will rotate the plane of polarization of 

 light, although neither the glass alone nor the magnetic 

 field alone will produce any rotation. The magnetic field 

 here coacts in some manner with the atoms or molecules 



