ORIGIN OF LIFE 225 



contributes energy to organic compounds and, in particular, to 

 proteins of which he believes it to be the unique life-principle. 

 Accordingly the problem of the origin of life is essentially the 

 origin of cyanogen, and since cyanogen and its compounds arise 

 only at exceedingly high temperatures, Pfliiger holds that life is 

 essentially derived from fire. 



Thus, if Pfluger's hypothesis is valid, once the cyanogen has 

 energized organic compounds they are on their way to proteins 

 and protoplasm, and finally to the evolution of the highly spe- 

 cialized protoplasm of organic life to-day. 



3. 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 continua- 

 tion of the process of complexification which he sees inherent in 

 the nature of matter. This he expresses in a general way as a "law 

 universal in its application to all matter, and holding throughout 

 all space as generally as the law of gravitation — a law which 

 might be called the law of complexity - - that matter, so far as 

 its energy environment will permit, tends to assume more and 

 more complex forms in labile equilibrium. Atoms, molecules, 

 colloids, and living organisms arise as a result of the operations 

 of this law, and in the higher regions of complexity it induces 

 organic evolution and all the many thousands of living forms." 

 In this manner he conceives that the chasm between non-living 

 and living things can be bridged over, and that life arose as an 

 orderly development, which comes to every earth in the universe 

 in the maturity of creation when the conditions arrive within 

 suitable limits. 



4. Allen s Theory 



Allen maintains that it is simplest to believe that life arose when 

 the physical conditions of the Earth came to be nearly what they 

 are at present, and therefore does not attempt to trace it to actual 

 Earth beginnings. If life formerly existed actively outside of the 

 range of the freezing and boiling points of water, it must, he says, 

 have been quite different from life as we know it. Allen imagines 

 some such reactions as the following to have occurred : solar energy, 

 acting on the water or damp earth containing the raw materials, 

 caused dissociation and rearrangement of the atoms; the nitrogen 



