PHYSICAL CONDITIONS AT BEGINNING OF LIFE 595 



able to act as enzymes for their own synthesis, the formation 

 of indefinite quantities of similar substance would, under 

 suitable conditions, seem assured. 



The successive stages of this organisation of living substance 

 would then, in the dim light of our present knowledge, appear 

 to be : 



1. The reaction of carbon dioxide and water vapour in 

 a concentrated mixture, under the influence of electrical dis- 

 charges to formaldehyde, and perhaps also formic acid and 

 other simple carbohydrates. 



2. The reaction of these primitive carbohydrates, perhaps 

 in their " nascent " state, that is in the moment of their forma- 

 tion, with ammonia or the amine or imine radicle, or with 

 prussic acid, to form simple amino acids. 



3. The precipitation of these colloidal substances into a 

 concentrated solution containing metal salts, phosphoric acid, 

 and doubtless other substances, and the combination of these 

 amino acids with phosphoric acid on the one hand, with 

 a magnesium-like metal on the other. 



4. A series of coagulations and re-solutions resulting in 

 various colloidal combinations, to the formation of ultra-micro- 

 scopic particles of living matter, and the aggregation of these 

 particles into primitive granules, microsomes, chloroplasts, and 

 similar bodies. 



5. The formation, through the chemical activity of these 

 bioblasts, of an enclosing membrane, resulting in the first 

 living " cells." 



We may readily conceive such volcanic areas as we have 

 imagined successively swept by tidal waves, by which these 

 initial organisms would be washed into the ocean, or at least 

 into enclosed seas, lagunes, and the like, there to undergo 

 further modification by their new surroundings. The tem- 

 perature of these early oceans, we have some reason to believe, 

 was considerably higher, perhaps 20 or 30 C. higher, than 

 at the present time. If this was not true generally, it might 

 readily have been true locally over considerable areas. 



Clausen, Hertwig, Loeb, 1 and others have shown that the 



rate of formation of living matter, that is to say, growth, is a 



function of temperature, and more or less follows the Arrhenius- 



van't Hoff law for the velocity of all chemical reactions, that 



1 Hober, Physik. Chemie, 322. 1902, for lit. 



