THE MECHANISM OF LIFE 215 



presents a more intimate relationship between 

 biology and physics — if it does not actually suggest 

 the possibility of a new branch of science such as 

 bio-physics. Whilst it helps to modify our idea of 

 life in its most elementary sense, it helps also to 

 place it upon a more physical and dynamical 

 basis. 



We have defined life as a specialised mode of 

 motion, the specialised mode of motion being that 

 of a complex system of molecules in a dynamically 

 unstable state, so that there is a continuous or con- 

 tinual change or flux in its substance between the 

 individual aggregates and their surroundings. 



It has been shown that the structure of the 

 cell, its growth and subdivision, can be explained 

 on the supposition that within the nucleus there 

 is a substance whose properties are somewhat 

 similar to those of the emanation from radium. 

 That, of course, would not explain the metabolism 

 of the cell. The metabolism, however, might be 

 explained, as a cell has itself a minute structure 

 and becomes manifested when the metabolism is 

 a molecular phenomenon. The swift passage of 

 numerous electro-magnetic pulses from the nucleus 

 outwards may be sufficient to produce a series of 

 molecular interchanges equivalent to those which 

 take place in phosphorescent and fluorescent bodies, 

 whilst there would also be lines of flow relatively 

 to the structure of the cell in which the meta- 

 bolism would take place. The radiation from 

 the nucleus would be radial, and the intensity of 



