THE MECHANISM OF LIFE 217 



and more distinct as we come to see that in 

 many substances such types of physical metabolism 

 are slowly but continuously taking place. 



We shall see that by the action of cathode 

 rays on fluorescent bodies a kind of metabolism 

 takes place, and that the effect of glycerine and 

 gelatin on solutions of these bodies is to lengthen 

 or increase the period of duration of the individual 

 molecules produced by the electro-magnetic pulses 

 or waves set up by the bombardment. 



Now a cell with a radio-active nucleus would 

 have such disturbances taking place in it. And 

 as electrons are continually shot out from the 

 nucleus, such disturbances as accompany them 

 should give rise to the kind of physical meta- 

 bolism we have described. The cell would be 

 the seat of a continual process of building up 

 and breaking down of molecular groups, and this 

 process would be more or less symmetrical 

 relatively to the nucleus. 



The metabolism is not merely a make-believe 

 in the shuffling of molecules ; for the strong 

 electrification of the nucleus and the ionisation 

 which accompanies the radiation from it will 

 tend to draw towards it matter from the surround- 

 ing medium, and thus assimilation and growth 

 will ensue. The flow of matter being radial too, 

 there will be a certain amount of exchange or 

 give and take between the cell and its environ- 

 ment ; but just as some ions are drawn in, others 

 are driven out. Those taken in will exceed those 



