ioo EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH 



pounds which, on account of their tendency to decomposition, 

 entered into relations with carbon compounds arising at similar 

 temperatures. When the temperature conditions of the earth's 

 surface permitted the precipitation of water, this with the 

 salts and gases in solution joined the growing cyanogen- 

 carbon complex and gave rise to the highly labile protein 

 molecules so characteristic of protoplasm. Thus, according to 

 Pfliiger's hypothesis, arose a relatively simple, homogeneous 

 material from which has been evolved the highly differentiated 

 protoplasmic masses or cells of organic life today. 16 



Moore's theory. Moore essays to picture with rather bold 

 strokes the origin of life from the inorganic elements of the 

 cooling earth, by a continuation of the slow process of com- 

 plexification which he sees inherent in matter. "This note," 

 he says, "cannot be too strongly sounded that as matter is 

 allowed capacity for assuming complex forms those complex 

 forms appear. As soon as oxides can be there, oxides appear; 

 when temperature admits of carbonates, then carbonates are 

 forthwith formed. . . . Next in order of development prior 

 to life inorganic colloids begin to appear in solution, or sus- 

 pension, in the waters of the cooling globe, alumina and silica 

 deposited in colloidal form are seen in many sedimentary 

 rocks. Single molecules existing in solution, and capable of 

 forming colloids, with alterations in temperature, and in 

 chemical reaction of the environment, begin to form com- 

 plexes, or solution aggregates, in which the unit of chemical 

 structure passes from the atom to the molecule." 



Accompanying these structural changes, the energy types 

 and phases inhabiting the unit of structure also vary. The 

 rates of vibration or of phasic activity in the colloidal aggre- 

 gates become slower than in the simpler molecules of the 



16 Cf. Verworn, op. cit. 



Pfliiger, E., "Ueber die physiologische Verbrennung in den lebendigen 

 Organismen." Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., vol. 10, 1875. 



