IV. THE MANNER OF THE GRADUAL CHANGE OF GENES 373 



mean the possession of the protoplasm protein tending to unfold. Pre- 

 cancerous stage is commonly associated with inflammation, which as 

 above pointed out means the unfolding of the protein. 



3. The Establishment of the Strong Reversibility 

 in Gene Structure 



The biogenetic law would never be established if the gene failed 

 to have strong reversible character. In this section, the reason for 

 the establishment of such a strong reversibility in genie structure is 

 considered. 



If the combination of two primitive organisms, A and B, takes 

 place, and the strongest elementary body in A is stronger than that 

 in B, then the strongest body in B as well as other elementary bodies 

 will be changed to become similar to A. But if the change is rever- 

 sible and the strongest body in B can recover its original structure 

 when freed from A, the body can behave as a recessive gene. Thus, 

 in order to become a recessive gene, the elementary body in B must 

 have the complete structural reversibility, that is, it must have the 

 faculty to recover completely its structure when the stress is removed. 

 This holds true also for dominant gene, since if it had no structural 

 reversibility, it would lose the independent character when it fell in 

 with a gene stronger than itself. The reversibility must, there- 

 fore, be the indispensable character for elementary bodies to become 

 genes. 



If the reversibility of a gene is strong, the organisms having the 

 gene can recover its original characthr even when it has been changed 

 to primitive structure under some environmental conditions. The 

 reproduction by means of germ cells cannot be achieved without this 

 reversible character of genes. When the organisms were advanced 

 in their evolutional course upto a certain degree with the acquisition 

 of complicated forms and structures, the mutliplication by fission 

 would become very inconvenient or rather impossible. Consequently, 

 the organisms having evolved to a certain extent would find it neces- 

 sary to fold their complicated structure into a mass as small as posi- 

 sible in order to discharge this folded structure olit of their bodies to 

 expand again the orginal structure from this small mass. 



This small mass is the germ cell, and the expand of the folded 

 structure, a process termed ontogeny, can be achieved by the reversi- 

 bility of the gene. Therefore, the reversibility is the indispensable 

 character for organisms in so far as they continue the reproduction 



