96 LIFE: ITS NATURE AND ORIGIN 



the several subunits of which it is composed; that, because of the 

 order of their fixation or because of the reshuffling of electronic fields 

 which follows each addition, these component subunits form a new 

 group identical with the fixation or catalyst group, and suppose, lastly, 

 that the duplicate particles now separate or are separated. Each 

 would be an exact duplicate of the other in catalytic and in self- 

 duplicating behavior. Our original particle could properly be called 

 an autocatalytic catalyst. 



"As an example of a simple and well-known chemical process, 

 analogous in a rudimentary way to the autocatalytic synthesis postu- 

 lated above, one may mention the formation of crystals of the alums. 

 If to pure cold water is added the salt potassium sulfate and the salt 

 aluminium sulfate, a solution strongly supersaturated for the potential 

 double salt, alum, may be obtained. But, in the absence of a frag- 

 ment of a previously formed crystal of alum the supersaturated 



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Figure 10 



solution remains practically indefinitely without giving rise to alum 

 crystals. However, if a tiny fragment of alum crystal is dropped in, 

 or was present in the materials used, at its surface occurs an adsorp- 

 tion of the two separate salts together with a definite number of 

 water units, the whole addition condensing into a very specific space 

 lattice with repetitions of the unitary alum complex. Mechanical, or 

 even thermal, agitation may break the bonds between the newly 

 formed alum complexes and the parental crytsal, so that a host of 

 descendants may grow and reproduce in the nutrient solution. 



"We do not contend that an alum crystal constitutes simple life, 

 although there may be some who would do so. In vital units the 

 building stones of the finer structure are not potassium, aluminum 

 and sulfanion, but are carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, etc., which are 

 united in a unit complex which is far more voluminous and involved 

 than alum is. Besides this difference in constituents, or more prob- 

 ably because of it, the units properly called vital are more flexible in 

 their bonding and more diversified in the activities carried on at the 

 catalytic surfaces. 



"The simplest living units of which we have indisputable evidence 

 are the genes. The forces governing the reproduction of each gene 

 are known to be within the individual gene. In evidence of this we 

 need cite here only the well-known fact that in a heterozygote, each 



