Evening star., 1936-10-31

Proof Of ground substance Of life I"
out of which everything that goes to
make up the living organism is derived, is
announced by DR.. E. E. Just, professor Of
biology at Howard University, in the
current issue of Science, official journal
of the American Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science.
He has been able to obtain, Dr. Just
says, ultramicroscopic, spectroscopic and
chemical evidence that the supposedly
undifferentiated cytoplasm of the egg has
specific structure for each species, and
probably for each individual.
The Howard University professor, long
recognized as one of the worlds foremost
cytologists, has just returned from
Summer Of conferences with European
biologists. His concepts, if widely ac-
cepted, will tend to shake some of the
most generally approved ideas on the
basis of the structure of life.
Every multi-cellular animal arises
from an egg. Every fertilized egg gives
rise to an animal of a specific Species
but with some individual variation. That
is. an eagle egg always gives rise to an
eagle and bear egg always to a bear
Now for the first time, DR.. Just says, it
can be proved that this is due to the
character Of the supposedly structureless
protOplasm rather than to the gene
packed nucleus.
DR.. Justs work has been with simpler
organisms. such as sea urchins and va
rieties OF sea worms, where it is possible
under the microscope to perform all
sorts OF experiments on the developing
organism before and after birth. They
would be impossible, of course, with the
higher and more specialized organisms,
but in the final analysis the same things
hold for man as for a sea urchin.
He now is able to demonstrate, DR..
Just says, that the spectrum of cytoplasm
differs according to species-which would
indicate q different chemical structure.
This differentiation, he believes, may
extend even to individuals, so that every
living animal, from worm to human, has
an individual spectrum, depending on the
basic cytoplaSm Of the egg from which
it came.
He also can demonstrate, he reports,
that there Is dinerential action to
various chemical reagents, according to
the race Of the egg. Thus he builds up
a strong case for the assertion that
species differences-and even individual
differences-go deeper than the genes
and chromosomes and into the ground
matter from which these are derived.
The Howard University professor thus
outlines his position:
Every egg consists Of mass of color
less substance-such as most of the
white" Of a hens egg-in which various
bodies are suspended. These bodies are:
The yolk, consisting Of fats and proteins
in various proportions according to the
species, which long has been known to
serve only one purpose-that of providing
food for the organism before birth.
Microscopic granules known as mito-
chondria. some of which contain pig
nents, iron and other metallic elements
Of great Importance to the developing
embryo.
Oil globules such as can be seen float
ing in the white Of hens egg, the pur-
pose Of which remains dubious.
The nucleus, tiny, pigmented body,
which contains all the chromosomes and
their constituent genes which are the
supposed units Of heredity.
Now some of these constituents of an
egg are lighter than others. Hence they
can be centrifuged, just as milk is centri-
fuged in a cream separator. When this
is done the materials are arranged In
three layers.
The topmost layer consists Of the ex-
trsmely light nucleus and the oil globules.