SPIRAL LiOLECULAR STRUCTURES 

 THE BASIS OF LIFE 



by Carl F. Krafft, 



Washington, D.C., 

 1927. 



Introduction. 



There exists in na^ture a sharp line of 

 demarcation between living things and inorganic 

 things. The fundaniental life processes, such as 

 grov;th, variaitioo. and reproduction are distinctly \ 

 different from any of the knov/n phenomena of ph3/-sics 

 or chemistry and are exhibited just as fully and 

 completely by the simplest bacteria as by the high- 

 est plants and animals. Notwithstanding their 

 diversity of shape and form, all living organisms 

 must possess something in common which gives rise 

 to that peculiar characteristic ceJled "life". 



If any particular physical structure consti- 

 tutes the true cause of life processes, then such 

 structural detail would have t» occur in every 

 living organism. But there are many bacteria which 

 exhibit no physical heterogeneity v/hatever, except 

 possibly an outer cell membrane, and it is inconceiv- 

 able how any purely physical structure could of itself 

 give rise to a phenomena like reproduction. 



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