NEUTRON EFFECTS ON ANIMALS 5 



equilibrium in the chemical sense), and this balance is necessary to the 

 continuance of function. If it is out of balance, the system will cease to 

 function. 



The cell is the unit of life, but the cell is in an environment and the en- 

 vironment is part of the colloidal cellular system. The cell and its environ- 

 ment are one. One of the difficulties of biochemical research is that it is 

 impossible, except perhaps in the blood, to remove a cell from its environ- 

 ment for study. A fish removed from its watery environment is no longer 

 a fish that leaps and plimges but a dead thing; so also is a cell removed from 

 its environment. 



Fig. 2. Diagrammatic model of the cell 



Lord Kelvin said in regard to scientific theories: "If I can make a model 

 of it I can try to understand it and if I cannot make a model of it it is diffi- 

 cult for me to understand it". It is possible to make a model of a vital 

 system considering the cell as its unit, but this model is no more accurate 

 than the model of the atom with fixed electrons of Bohr and Lewis in 1918, 

 which has since been developed into the orbits of moving electrons and all 

 their influence upon nuclear physics. Both the living cell and the atom 

 are dj^namic systems. Such a model (Fig. 2) for a dynamic \'ital system 

 can no more be right than a model of the atom with fixed electrons, but it is 

 a step toward understanding and explanation. It merely is a diagram- 

 matic representation for convenience of thought and clarity of consider- 

 ation. 



