THE NATURE OF THE GENE 301 



views regarding the genes themselves are not expressed in these 

 papers. 



Apparently, Goldschmidt (1930) was the first to point to cer- 

 tain recent developments in chemistry which could lead further, 

 as did also Koltzoff (1934, 1935) as mentioned. Quoting the 

 work on the chemical structure of fibers (Meyer and Mark) which 

 showed that large chain molecules of measurable length combined 

 into a micellar bundle make up these structures, he pointed 

 out that genes may turn out not to be free molecules but mole- 

 cules combined into a micellar structure. He alluded to the 

 possibility that the "quantity of the gene" might thus turn out to 

 be the number of links in a chain molecule. In another paper 

 (1932a), he says: "The latest developments of organic chemistry 

 suggest a different relation which is also of a quantitative type 

 and nevertheless capable of being produced by the addition of a 

 single quantum: changes in the length of members of a chain 

 molecule in both directions. I shall not develop further this 

 idea, to which I think the future belongs." 



The same idea has recently been taken up by a chemist Miss 

 Wrinch, who has developed from it a theory of the gene (1934, 

 1936), going into the chemical details of what, with Goldschmidt, 

 was only a suggestion and with Koltzoff, little more. 



The starting point for Miss Wrinch's speculation is identical 

 with the viewpoint of all geneticists who have tried to advance a 

 theory of the gene. She writes (1936): 



The regions of the chromosome of cytology associated with certain 

 genes have become ever smaller and smaller, in some cases being no 

 longer than a hundred angstroms. Simultaneously molecules of the 

 chemist have become ever longer and longer, now reaching a length 

 greatly exceeding 100 angstroms. There is no resting place for the 

 theorist concerned with the structure of chromosomes until his postulates 

 are capable of expression in molecule terms. In a dark forest of facts 

 this at least stands out as clear as day — only with the help of molecular 

 physics is it possible to devise a structure for the chromosome. 



The chromosome, then, is a molecular aggregate, and the 

 problem is the chemical nature of the constituent molecules 

 and the manner in which they are arrayed. Wrinch starts 

 with the protein molecule and stresses the fact that the basic 

 molecule is built largely of amino-acid residues and that the 

 active proteins have a high content of diamino acids, especially 



