CHAPTER II 



POWERFUL FORCE GENERATED BY 

 PROTEIN POLYMERIZATION. 



1. Water-Molecule Layer Surrounding Virus Particles 



As previously mentioned (Part 1, Chapter III), protoplasm parti- 

 cles including viruses combine with so much water amounts as appro- 

 ximately ten times of their dry weight, and its greater part seems to 

 exist in forming a thick layer of molecules around the particle. Next 

 we shall consider as regards the thickness of the water layer as well 

 as the cause by which the layer is produced. 



The relation between the sugar-insoluble space of the protein particle 

 and the sugar concentration of the solution in which the particle is 

 suspended was already shown in Fig. 3 in Part I. As clearly indicated 

 in this Fig. the sugar-insoluble space, as a rule, increases remarkably 

 as the sugar concentration decreases, and it may be deduced from the 

 curve in this figure, that the space will become nearly 20 as the sugar 

 concentration approaches 0. In fact, the greatest value obtained in 

 the writer's various experimental studies on the space was about 20. 

 If the space was 20 and the total water amount was contained within 

 the particle, the water content of the particle would be 95 per cent ; 

 but it is unreasonable to consider that the particle could swell to such 

 an unusual extent. 



Moreover, the fact that the curve in Fig. 3 ascends remarkably as 

 the sugar concentration decreases can most reasonably be explained by 

 assuming that the water layer cannot, as a rule, act as a solvent, but 

 that the^ combined water molecules pass gradually into the ordinary 

 water molecules as they exist in more outer layer, so that the suger can 

 penetrate furthur into the layer as the concentration increases. Water 

 molecules may likewise possibly be absorbed into the particle itself, 

 and the absorbed water molecules existing inside the particle may be 

 similar in their physicochemical character to those existing in inner 

 layer, although it may be possible that the former molecules are 

 more marked in their inability to act as a solvent. Hence the sugar 

 may even penetrate into the particle when its concentration is ex- 

 tremely high. ''-' 



It seems very difficult, if not impossible, to estimate the water 

 amount inside the particle. Since sugar may penetrate into the particle 



