HYPOTHESES CONCERNING NATURE OF BACTERIOPHAGE 325 



series, is not itself an autolysin, since it is not present in the normal 

 bacterium. 



D. Hypothesis of a living principle, normally present in the bacteria. 

 This is the hypothesis of Bail. I have been fortunate to find a resume 

 of this theory in a communication of this author recently published,^" 

 for I confess that I would have been embarrassed to explain it. Here is 

 the resume. 



Drawing an analogy with superior cells, there takes place in them two proc- 

 esses, especially in that which concerns the chromatin, the dissolution of the 

 old substance and the reconstruction of that of the new cells. As these processes 

 are always linked to changes in the chromatin, one has a right to attribute a 

 causal relationship to the activated chromatin and to attribute to it the capacity 

 of dissolution and of reconstruction. One might admit that these capacities may 

 be separated in inferior cells. If, for some unknown reason, the capacity for 

 reconstruction is lost, that of dissolution may remain active. In such a case the 

 cellular elements would be dissolved, while their reproduction would be impossi- 

 ble. The chromatin continues but through this modification it has acquired new 

 properties. It has become bacteriophage. In the presence of new cells in the 

 process of multiplication, two phenomena occur, union with the bacteriophage 

 followed by action of the bacteriophage. The new chromatin has two proper- 

 ties, dissolution and reconstruction, and now adding that property of the bac- 

 teriophage, dissolution, there will now be operative two dissolutions for each 

 reconstruction. This last is not possible, hence the chromatin passes into the 

 bacteriophage state. Consequently the latter increase in numbers. 



As for chromatin it is necessary to consider the elements, the chromosomes, 

 which are, in a general way, the elements of the hereditary substance. These 

 elements are attacked individually by the bacteriophage. If, by this action, a 

 chromosome, for example, is deprived of its chromatin two possibilities arise; 

 either the cell can not live without it, in which case it dissolves, or, life is possible, 

 in which case it becomes bacteriophage-resistant. This means that the bacterio- 

 phage no longer finds in this chromatin the element which it can attack; it is 

 no longer itself, but something else. The more chromosomes, the more bacterio- 

 phages theoretically possible. 



The more phrases, the more hypotheses, each one the more improbable 

 than the others; they are cumulative. It is needless to enter here into 

 a discussion of this hypothesis. The facts which have already been 

 detailed in opposing the preceding hypothesis, and those which will be 

 presented in the next chapter show that Bail's theory, as well as the 

 other concepts which would derive the bacteriophage principle from the 

 bacterium itself, "do not choose to be hampered by the facts." 



Bail, and his pupils Nakamura, Watanabe, and Matsumoto (although 

 these last have not ventured to clearly explain the above) are the only 

 partisans of this strange theory. 



