280 IV- THE PRINCIPLES OF LIFE PHENOMENA 



for mice (95 a). 



At any rate, there seems no doubt that bacteria can recover their 

 normal, complete form even after decomposed into smaller, virus-like 

 particles. According to Dienes and Zamecnik (96) the presence of 

 high concentrations of glycine in the media induces the transformation 

 of some bacteria into L-form, glycin being the most effective among 

 a variety of amino acids, although very few bacteriostatic chemicals 

 induce the transformation. It is interesting that only one toxic bacte- 

 riostatic chemicals among many examined produced L-form, while 

 three amino acids which are necessary constituents of the cell pro- 

 duces L-form when they were present in high concentrations. This 

 fact suggests that the L-form transformation is never a mere mecha- 

 nical decomposition of bacterial bodies, but may be associated with a 

 peculiar structural transformation like that in spore formation. 



There is little doubt that sporogenesis is associated with consider- 

 able changes in protoplasm structure. Hardwick and Foster (97) have 

 found that seventeen different enzymatic systems, abundantly demon- 

 strable in vegetative cellular extracts of B. mycoides and other aerobic 

 sporeforming bacilli, could not be detected in spore extracts tested 

 concomitantly. They regarded this fact as supporting their hypothesis 

 that sporogenesis occurs at the expense of enzyme proteins preexisting 

 in the vegetative cell. However, as stated already, any structural 

 change in protoplasm should be accompanied by some change in enzy- 

 matic system, and hence this fact must only be indicating the oc- 

 currence of the structural change in the protoplasm. It is considered 

 that the change leads to a primitive structure of the protoplasm, 

 whose return to the original structure is to be accompanied by the 

 recovery of the vegetative form, an important concept which will be 

 discussed in great detail in Part V. 



In order to accomplish the rejuvenation in germ cells of the host, 

 bacteria must exist in a virus-like state at least at the early stage 

 of the development of the host, not to speak when present in the 

 germ cells. In virus-like state at such a stage, they may be unable 

 to exhibit the function as bacteria even when incubated in vitro in 

 much the same way as that the germ cells of higher organisms 

 cannot develop into the adult in vitro. Therefore, failure of demon- 

 stration of the filtrable forms may not necessarily disprove the pos- 

 sibility of the bacteria to be transmitted by the host germ cells. 

 Nevertheless, as above stated numerous authors believe that the 

 various bacteria involve a virus-like stage, supporting strongly the 

 above concept. 



Almost all the human individuals seem to be utilized by tubercle 

 bacillus. However, bacteria, like viruses, may be unable to utilize all 



