COLLOIDS AN D LIFE 63 



ing which at all times are colloid in composition."* 

 Further, it is the opinion held by all the foremost 

 students of the day who approach the problem of 

 life from the physicochemical point of view, that life 

 on the earth originated in the colloid state. Thus 

 Henry Fairfield Osborn, famous paleontologist: "In 

 the lifeless world matter occurred both in the crys- 

 talloidal and colloidal states. It is in the latter state 

 that life originated."^ 



In treating of the "Initial Biologic Habitat," the 

 geologist, Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin,^ pictures 

 the early earth as having been rich in colloids. Cer- 

 tainly, the requirements for colloidal formation are 

 very limited. Given the early earth absolutely with- 

 out life, but with continents formed, with water, 

 and the atmosphere — any kind of an atmosphere that 

 could develop into the present atmosphere, heat 

 from the sun — if not direct light, the operation of 

 the known laws of nature, and powerful action 

 necessarily was present, action in the nature of re- 

 duction, or disintegration. Various causes inevitably 

 contributed to the formation of colloid systems, 

 granted only the occasion of a moderate temperature. 

 It is a fact which cannot be doubted that it is im- 

 possible to postulate the existence of the earth in a 



* Theoretical and Applied Colloid Chemistry, 82, 155. 



* The Origin and Evolution of Life, 58. 

 6 The Origin of the Earth, 250-261. 



