212 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



eyelashes, it becomes a question whether the virtues of nucleic acids may 

 not rival those of amino-acid chains in their vital importance. From 

 Steudel's figures it can be reckoned that there are about half a million 

 molecules of nucleic acid in a single sperm-cell of the species with vvhicli 

 he was working. 



But in addition to nucleic acids there are also strange compounds 

 of higher fatty acids containing suspiciously significant groups, identical 

 in their general character with those found also in nucleic acid, namely, 

 phosphoric acid, organic bases and sugar ; and besides these there are 

 the mysterious sterols. All of these are frankly insoluble in water, and 

 yet have in some part of their composition features that make them not 

 indifferent to water or even to the molecules and ions that exist in true 

 solution, in the liquid state, within the cell. The physical condition of 

 these insoluble substances in the aqueous system of the cell is still little 

 understood. All that can be said with certainty is that they must modify 

 its homogeneity even more than the long floating chains of amino acids, 

 however much these may be linked together one with another. If the 

 characteristic behaviour of living matter is rightly regarded as due to the 

 order that it introduces into the movements and spatial relationships of • 

 foreign molecules in its vicinity, then these insoluble components may 

 well be expected to play a leading role by forming films and surfaces that 

 permeate its texture and delimit its parts. 



Such an analysis of the chemical meaning of material life viewed in 

 the light of scientific facts has to be largely an exercise of the imagination, 

 but it may present itself as an intellectual necessity. If it is right to regard 

 the power of spontaneous self -regeneration as the distinctive property of 

 living matter, it is not intellectually possible to be content with a phrase 

 and dismiss it. A phrase is itself an image, and an image, however 

 shadowy, has parts and dimensions. Those who feel it an intellectual 

 necessity to explore unexplored lands cannot procure maps, but that 

 does not justify their setting out with no forethought or reasoned plans. 



The beginning of life, if it is an intellectual necessity to trace this, 

 would thus appear to have been in the coming together of atoms of certaii\ 

 elements in such a pattern that this power in its simplest form resulted 

 from its design. Some might call this event fortuitous, others the pre- 

 dictable outcome of the inherent properties of those elements, the inevitable 

 operation in the course of time of the laws of chance. Those who call it 

 fortuitous may go so far as to regard the whole history of life as fortuitous, 

 and give priority to the concurrence of the atoms over the properties and 

 functions that are revealed by the concurrence. The others may look on 

 Life as the fulfilment of the destiny of these elements, and give priority 

 to the potential properties of matter over the concurrence which was no 

 more than their epiphany. 



If this analysis is approved, and the distinctive property of living 

 matter, the power of self-regeneration, depends upon the power of limiting 

 the movements and directing and controlling th e spatial relations of surroun d- 

 ing molecules so as to modify their chemical behaviour, it is the exercise 

 of this same power that leads to the formation of substances such as 

 starch, glycogen and fats ; and in so far as such substances contribute to 

 the regeneration of the living matter, the power of forming them contributes 



