LIFE S FRINGES 



sumption that the carrier race, without exhibiting any disease symptoms 

 whatsoever, harbours in all its parts a species-foreign virus protein? 



And the earlier discussed non-specific virus induction that has been 

 made so highly probable obviously fits completely into this same train 

 of thought. Is it not conceivable, for example, that the non-specific 

 agents that cause Doerr's experimentally induced herpes destroy par- 

 ticular synthetic entities, and that the consequent disruption of the 

 harmony of the cell leads the remaining synthetic entities, perhaps 

 modified by the interference, to a directed synthesis of the protein 

 that acts as the herpes virus? Must we not then also regard the filtr- 

 able, transmissible, tar-induced sarcomas in the same manner, with 

 the difference that in this case the production of the virus is accom- 

 panied by a new equilibrium between the remaining synthetic entities, 

 an equilibrium that we designate as a sarcoma? 



But are we not thus led to consider these synthetic entities more 

 generally as the 'constitutive vital elements' of the living cell? Invol- 

 untarily one is here reminded of a statement that was made, though 

 in my opinion quite inopportunely, by d'Herelle: 



'Toute la biologie reposait, repose encore sur l'hypothese fondamen- 

 tale que l'unite de la matiere vivante c'est la cellule. Beijerinck le pre- 

 mier s'est affranchi de ce dogme et a proclame le fait, que la vie n'est 

 pas le resultat d'une organisation cellulaire, mais derivee d'une autre 

 phenomene qui ne peut des lors resider que dans la constitution physico- 

 chimique d'une micelle proteique.' 



Would not this also indicate how we may solve the difficulty in- 

 herent in the notion that at some future time a sharp boundary shall 

 be drawn between the filtrable contagia that may lay claim to the 

 glorious epithet 'living' and the inanimate crystalline virus proteins? 

 We may, I believe, expect that, like the Versailles treaty, a peace 

 treaty based on this concept will remain a constant source of disquiet 

 and friction. In view of the startling analogy in the activity of the 

 most divergent viruses, the adherents to the theory of autonomous 

 parasites would evidently find it an intolerable notion that the proud 

 vital activities are so perfectly imitated on the other side of the divid- 

 ing line. 



Must we not search for a genuine pacification by way of the concept 

 that the cellular organisation of life has been preceded by an evolu- 

 tion that has started with still more elementary living units and 



347 



