LIFE S FRINGES 



clear solution that contained the bulk of the disease-producing capac- 

 ity. Addition of ammonium sulphate to this solution caused the for- 

 mation of a precipitate, leaving the supernatant liquid practically 

 devoid of virus. Conversely, i ml of a solution that contains only io~ 9 g 

 of the precipitate can cause a healthy plant to become diseased. The 

 precipitate is soluble in water, and can be reprecipitated by the re- 

 newed addition of ammonium sulphate. Even after a ten-fold repe- 

 tition of this procedure the disease-provoking capacity of the final 

 precipitate has not appreciably diminished in a quantitative sense. 

 Who would hesitate to conclude that the salt addition had caused the 

 ultramicroscopic virus to flocculate out as an amorphous and macro- 

 scopically visible mass? But Stanley examines a fraction of this mass 

 under his microscope and observes . . . crystals ! 



This may make you realize the dramatic conflict that during the 

 past few years, even to some extent prior to Stanley's discovery, has 

 ensued with respect to the once so readily accepted world of the in- 

 visible life. Does this life really exist, or is that which at first sight sug- 

 gests itself as such merely dead matter exhibiting some of the most 

 characteristic features of life? Here one must consider particularly 

 the capacity to multiply in an appropriate heterogeneous environ- 

 ment. This should not be minimized; and one must realize the portent 

 of the following statement : a few of Stanley's tiny crystals, inoculated 

 into a healthy plant, make it possible to obtain from this plant, after 

 a month or so, 2 g of completely identical crystals per kg of press juice, 

 while uninoculated control plants are entirely devoid of this material 

 at the end of this period. 



Is it, in view of the foregoing, surprising that in microbiological 

 circles a passionate fight has been engendered, whose ultimate out- 

 come must determine the question 'living or dead' for each virus 

 separately? One must fully realize the tragic consequence of this state 

 of affairs. Life proud and dignified, instantly recognized in the case 

 of man and animal, of oak and rose, life that even the child senses as 

 a special quality, and that the mature mind has learned to consider 

 as an enclave in the continuum of inanimate matter whose limits can 

 be surpassed only from inside to outside, this life, in its most minute 

 manifestations, appears to be indistinguishable from some paltry crys- 

 tals! Xo clear line of demarcation can be drawn in the realm of ultra- 

 microscopic structures between the living and the non-living. Whoever 



335 



