Biological Molecules 



make up an organism would seem to be due to 

 the different numbers and the varying arrange- 

 ment of the biological atoms which compose the 

 molecules from which unit characters are derived. 

 This would be quite in accordance with the 

 chemical notion of allotropy. Thus, the graphite 

 and the diamond molecules are both made up of 

 the same kind of atoms. 



But the biological atoms are living, that is to 

 say, they are continually undergoing anabolism 

 and katabolism, growth and decay. They 

 exhibit all the phenomena of life, they must 

 grow and divide, and they must absorb nourish- 

 ment ; hence it is not surprising that they should 

 differ slightly among themselves, that they should 

 exhibit the phenomenon of variation. Although 

 probably all are composed of the same living 

 material, no two are exactly alike, hence the 

 molecules formed by them will also differ from 

 one another. Thus we can see why it is that all 

 organisms exhibit fluctuating variations. 



Very different are the discontinuous variations 

 or mutations. These would seem to be due to 

 either a rearrangement of the biological atoms in 

 the biological molecule or the splitting up of 

 the latter into two or more molecules. This, of 

 course, is pure hypothesis. Let us take an 

 imaginary example. Suppose that a biological 

 molecule contains eighteen biological atoms, and 

 that these are arranged in the form of an equi- 



