March, 1907.] 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



61 



Physics and Biology. 



1!\ John Hitler Burke, M.A. (Camb. and Dubl.i. 

 Formerly Berkeley Fellow of Owens College, Manchest 



The study in recent years of life's origin has come 

 more closelj within those departments ol si ience which 

 deal with the invisible and ultra-microscopic i< rms of 

 matter than with the visible, which are so much more 

 and so vastly complicated. It comes, as 1 have tried 

 to indicate elsewhere, more within the realm of 

 chemistry, or indeed more appropriately physics, than 

 within that of botany or zoology. And it is, perhaps, 

 as remotely connected with these, as these are with 

 human physiology; nay, even (should we say?) with 

 psychology. For the problem of life's origin is one 

 that resolves itself, and is ultimately lost in the grada- 

 tion of the infinitely small; a fact which concerns the 

 physics far more than it does the biology ol to-day. 



View it as we may, it leads us, as I think, to infer 

 the atomic constitution of vital substance — vital 

 atoms, entities as separate and distinct, and perhaps 

 immutable, as the atoms ol the chemist, or (should we 

 sa\ ':) the electrons of the physicist. 



No prejudice or predilections, as to what does or 

 does not come within the sphere of any particular 

 science, should be allowed to stand in the wax of 

 developments on these lines: if there are reasons which 

 indicate that the recognised limitations should be ex- 

 tended or removed. 



Now in dealing with vital phenomena, from a physi- 

 cal point of view, one fact stares us in the face ai h 

 time we approach the problem; and that is, the asym- 

 metric structure of living matter; and the fact that such 

 asymmetric structure has hitherto never been obtained, 

 save through the agency of its vital processes. 



This is a phenomenon not less than that of life, 

 which baffles the physicist, as much as it dees tin 

 biologist of to-day. And it is undoubtedly one which 

 runs parallel and is concomitant with the phenomenon 

 of life itself. 



How did the asymmetric structure arise? Is its 

 asymmetric property that which gives the unstable 

 but directive quality to living matter? Is it. and is 

 living matter with it. as persistent, as approximately 

 stable, as the atoms themselves? How are physical 

 principles in the phenomenon of biotic energy or poten- 

 tial life-activity to be explained? 



The argument, from continuity alone, might lead 

 us to expect that the electron is onl) a halting -1 p in 

 the great scale of being ; and that, whether we should 

 ever succeed in demonstrating it or not, it. too. in its 

 turn will be found to be an aggregate ol smaller units. 

 So on ad infinitum. There i-. however, no actual 

 demonstration of this possible at present. 



Now, my endeavour has been to show that biophores. 

 the ultimate nuclei or \ital units in their final state, ai 

 aggregates of smaller units. There is a stage through 

 which, like spiral nebulae, on a totally different scale, 

 they musl pas- before being transformed or condensed 

 into stable systems, like chemical atoms. 



As all nebulae are resolvable into these spiral forms, 

 so the condensing aggregates of electrons not less than 

 those of matter in its grosser states would have to 

 assume the peculiar shape-, or curves, which char- 

 acterise their larger analogues. 



We must not expect that we shall ever reach the 

 smallest any more than the largest ol things; l"> in the 

 mathematical and physical there is nothing either 

 great or small, but thinking makes it so. 



The problem of life transcends physics because for 

 man;, reasons it not merely depends upon the ultra- 

 oscopic, but in turn upon the atomic, ultra-cor- 

 puscular, or ultra-electronic, ad infinitum. 



The electron or corpuscle should be an ?:_ 

 and not an indivisible, unit. On thi ^ basis, the forma- 

 tion of such nebula; and spiral atoms may be conceived. 

 The actual corpuscles which form the planets of the 

 liar systems would seem to be in their turn 

 but aggregates ol smaller units. 



My chief reasons for holding this view ai 

 follows : — 



Clerk Maxwell was careful to point out that the 

 variety of phenomena of life could not be accounted 

 for by the small number of atoms in the organic cell. 

 I he chemical atoms, indeed, ol the same element may 

 be regarded as resembling each other only in certain 

 respects, as one individual resembles another. But il 

 they are aggregates of smaller units, a- I have tried 

 to emphasise in "'The Origin of Life," there would be 

 opportunities for variations in atoms, which, as 

 chemical units, are the same. The atoms of the same 

 substance would, so to speak, have merely a family 

 likeness, and there are strong reasons for supposing 

 that the phenomena of life are thus dependent upon 

 the ultra-atomic constitution of matter. A pri 

 analogous to natural selection would ensue. 



Xow the general physical property ss matter 



arc explicable, as we know, on the -.apposition that 

 there are small particles called molecules : the chemical 

 properties on the supposition that there are smaller ones 

 called alonis ; tl ical properties on the assumption 



that there arc still smaller ones called corpuscli 

 ■■lections: and the biological properties. I think, on the 

 assumption that there are yet smaller ones — sin, 1 

 we --hail s;_,-. such phenomena demand it — of which 

 biophores or biogen are nebular forms. If there are 

 biophores with an asymmetric structure, that asym- 

 metric structure and all its varied properties can ' 

 plained on the supposition only that the electrons are 

 aggregates ol smaller units; an assumption which other 

 phenomena demand. There is nothing unphilosophic 

 in this assumption. And if the atomic theory is to 

 hold in its application to biological, as well as to purely 

 chemical and physical phenomena, the facts of th, 

 demand it. We cannot frame the nebula analog) for 

 electronic systems without postulating that the electrons 



or corpuscles are aggregates ••! smaller things. The 

 corpuscle may be compared to a planet; the nuclear 

 positive ion to a sun; but il these systems have been 

 formed by condensation, they must In- the condens 

 ol --till smaller thing-. 



Germ-plasm, that i-. the biophoridse, would thus 

 consist of a nebula of uncondensed matter, ol 

 puscles or electrons in the state of formation, as planets 



and s ilar S) St ms are c\ olved from atoms. This is not 

 an absurdity, as ma) at lirst sight be imagined. 



but merel) an extension, and a logical extension, as I 

 venture to think, ol the theory that atoms are such 

 miniature planetary s\ stem 



1 1 atoms and electrons may be regarded as the 

 condensed product- ol the primordial substance, which 

 I have called h gen. 



S • eminent a man of science as Professor Schuster 

 has written in the following terms in discussing this 

 theory ol biogen in its relation to the origin of lit, 



The discoveries ol the last few years have in one 

 respect inverted our previous idea- <>i the problem of 



• Mju. '1.5.'. 1 o.i.im.'.c, April 27, njo6. 



