4 NEUTRON EFFECTS ON ANI1V1.A.LS 



considered, the comparatively slighter lethal effect is surprising so it must 

 be concluded that only part of its energy is effective and some explanation 

 of this fact is required. 



Similar experiments have been done by us upon nucleated red blood cells 

 of fowls which showed that the maximum absorption of the monochromatic 



o 



light was at 2654 A (2) a small deviation from the previous shorter wave 

 length, 2536 A. 



As far as X-rays and neutrons go, there is little correlation between their 

 mechanism upon the cells and that of the shorter ultraviolet rays. If the 

 theory of secondary radiation at a wave length comparable to the killing 

 wave length of ultraviolet is disproved, some other explanation must be 

 sought. 



The vital system is not as easily explained as simpler chemical reactions, 

 but life is after all a chemical phenomenon and must be considered upon 

 that basis. The large number of catalysts, such as enzymes, hormones 

 and vitamins, complicate the explanation. These catalysts are specific 

 and effective in enormously minute amounts, so that their effect is often 

 overlooked in a general view of the vital system. No real conclusion as to 

 effects of forces or substances can be really clear unless there is some eluci- 

 dation of the mechanism involved rather than an explanation based solely 

 on cause and end- result without consideration of the mechanism. 



All chemical exchanges exist through the giving or taking or sharing of 

 electrons, so that this must be considered as fundamental. There are three 

 types of chemical systems. First, there are true solutions, that is strong 

 acid and strong base, where the reactions are complete in one direction 

 and reversible only to a perceptible degree, of the type H2SO4 + 2NaOH = 

 Na2S04 -{- 2H2O, but this obviously cannot be the one we are concerned 

 with in systems within the mammalian body. 



Type two, another explanation of vital reactions, and it was in its time 

 quite plausibly advanced by Arrhenius, is that of weak acid and weak base 

 in which the equilibrium is reached while there are still present appreciable 

 amounts of free acid and free base as well as neutral salt, the quantities 

 depending, according to the law of mass action, upon the relative amounts 

 in which the two reagents are present in the mixture. Attractive as this 

 explanation is of the chemical action, particularly of immunological reac- 

 tions, it has not been found acceptable, although the explanations of Paul- 

 ing and others more recently suggest that character. 



Colloid systems, type three, are treacherous, for the more they are dis- 

 persed, the more closely they follow the chemical form of weak acid and 

 weak base and approach combination in stoichiometric proportion. The 

 vital system is not only a colloid system but it is a series of colloid systems 

 within colloid systems. It exists in a state of balance or equilibrium (not 



