THE BIOPHORES 77 



satisfied by six different univalent groups, twelve different 

 arrangements are possible. 1 



Even if for the time we 



leave out all consideration of C ** 



introduction of new orders | | 



of "swinging side - chains " A — O — B B — O — A 



think of the number of 1 j 



permutations and combina- q q £ Q — ,o~E 



tions that are possible i I 



when, instead of two, there p p 



are in the ordinary protein ■ Fl0, 3- 

 molecule hundreds of carbon atoms. 



The Biophores 



If, therefore, we regard the biophores or molecules of living 

 and heritable matter in the germ cells as, if not proteins, at 

 least proteidogenous, giving rise to proteins when dead or killed 

 in the process of analysis, obviously it is not necessary to demand 

 a separate determinant, a separate molecule for each specific 

 property ; it is simpler to regard properties inherent in the bio- 

 phores as the expression of the constitution of those biophores, 

 of the mode of linkage of the various nuclei, together with the 

 number of those nuclei and the nature of their swinging side- 

 chains. This conception is within the bounds of physical possi- 

 bility, and Weismann's ids, idants, determinants, and the like, 

 certainly are not. 



Let us therefore accept as a working hypothesis this con- 

 ception of the chemical constitution of the essential living matter 

 of the individual, namely that it is, as I express it, proteido- 

 genous, giving upon analysis bodies of proteid nature, and that 

 these biophores or molecules endowed with vital and heritable 

 properties are composed of rings or it may be chains of amino- 

 acid nuclei in series, each nucleus composed of a central ampho- 

 teric glycocoll group, to which are attached varying orders of 

 side-chains. 



We know, in the first place, that in conjugation or amphi- 

 mixis the one element of the two germ cells, male and female, 

 that is contributed in approximately equal portions is the nuclear 



1 See Bayliss, Principles of Physiology, p. 268. 



