INJUEY AND RECOVERY 123 



bility, as well as those concerned in injury and death, may 

 be accounted for in this same way. We thus arrive at a 

 very simple conception of the underlying mechanism of 

 life processes, which may be useful in formulating a 

 theory of living matter. 



If life is dependent upon a series of reactions which 

 normally proceed at rates bearing a definite relation to 

 each other, it is clear that a disturbance of these rate-rela- 

 tions may have profound effects upon the organism. It 

 is evident that such a disturbance might be produced by 

 changes in temperature (in case the temperature coeffi- 

 cients of the reactions differ) or by chemical agents. The 

 same result might be brought about by physical means, 

 especially where structural changes occur which alter the 

 permeability of the plasma membrane or of internal 

 structures (such as the nucleus and plastids) in such a 

 way as to bring together substances which do not nor- 

 mally interact.^* 



This investigation of fundamental life processes shows 

 that they appear to obey the laws of chemical dynamics. 

 It illustrates a method of attack which may throw some 

 light upon the underlying mechanism of these processes 

 and which may assist materially in the analysis and con- 

 trol of life-phenomena. 



■* Or which normally react to a lesser degree. 



