CHAPTER 6 



Of Nucleic Acids and Nucleoproteins^ 



That each from other differs, first confess; 

 Next, that he varies from himself no less. 



POPE I EPISTLE TO COBHAM I 19-20 



1 . INTRODUCTION 



A speaker before a group such as I have the honor of addressing 

 today has one of two choices: he can say very much about very 

 httle or very little about very much. There are, of course, two 

 more choices possible; but the usual lecturer — grown fat in, if 

 not from, the pursuit of science — will be too conceited to admit 

 the one and too modest to consider the other. In any event, 

 though it would be nice to be able to say very much about a very 

 important matter, the title of my talk must have told you that 

 nothing of the kind is contemplated. In fact, as I go on I may 

 give the impression of asking questions rather than giving an- 

 swers. I can only hope that I shall not find myself in the position 

 of the Indian conjurer who after having fixed the traditional rope 

 in the air climbed up to hang himself with it. 



We live in a time that is drunk with experiments. Dubious 

 results, dubiously paralleled, serve to estabhsh so-called facts with 

 a celerity that would make a monkey blush. A scientific Rip van 

 Winkle, were he to return from only a few weeks' sleep, would 

 find that in this short time ten people have described a "system 

 that makes RNA" and ten, a "homogenate that makes DNA"; 

 and twenty others have even "synthesized protein in vitro'\ But 

 when he takes a closer look at the sort of RNA and DNA and 

 protein that have been produced, he may decide to go back to 

 sleep. Perhaps Aristotle would have felt at home, but would 



* Reprinted with permission from Harvey Lectures, 1956-1957, 52 (1958) 

 57-73. 



