Chapter 6 



Catalysis: The Guide of Life 



Two outstanding and superficially irreconcilable facts con- 

 front us when we consider the extremely complex and varied 

 phenomena of life and of living units, or bionts. Most striking is 

 the tendency of bionts to breed true. Despite wide differences in 

 food and living conditions, the fundamental processes of life, 

 growth, development and reproduction appear, as a rule, to be 

 unerringly shepherded along definite paths in orderly sequences: 

 overriding the vagaries of wind, wave and current, the ship of life 

 tends to maintain a fixed course. 



On the other hand, closer examination of the facts reveals that 

 the course of life, like that of true love, never does run smooth. 

 We have ample evidence of abnormalities in structure and func- 

 tion, some of which may be inherited. Sometimes these are help- 

 ful, but often they are harmful and lead to disease and death. No 

 matter how we may differ in our attempts to explain these devi- 

 ations from ideal normality, it is a fact that evolutionary changes 

 occurred over pre-human geological epochs, that from the earliest 

 times men have selected desirable spontaneous varieties of plants 

 and animals for propagation. In passing, it may be mentioned 

 that present scientific views as to the order of the appearance of 

 living things are substantially the same as that given in Genesis: 

 following the emergence of dry land came grass, herbs and trees; 

 then living creatures of the seas, and birds; then living creatures 

 of the earth, cattle and beasts; and finally, man. 



In our attempt to explain the basic mechanism whereby life 

 exists, persists and proceeds, we have invoked the old but now well 

 known and extensively utilized principle of catalysis, which in- 

 volves the direction of definite chemical changes by surfaces of 

 definite structure under definite conditions. Naturally, many 

 other mechanisms, such as differential diffusion, selective adsorp- 

 tion, and fluid movement are also operative, especially in relatively 

 large and complex organisms, and at various structural levels. But 



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