66 PRIMITIVE FORMS OF LIFE 



in detail. The fundamental substance of the blood corpuscles, 

 the green colouring matter of plants, the chromatin that plays 

 such an outstanding part in the nutrition of the anatomical 

 elements, the pigments, etc., all have a composition which may 

 vary sometimes in kind, as Armand Gautier has demonstrated 

 in connexion with the vine and various kinds of catechu, or 

 from one variety to the other, but all belong to the same 

 chemical type. 



Hence we no longer seek to solve the problem of life-creation 

 by looking for a special substance that is to represent " the 

 physical basis of life ", as Huxley believed, but by studying 

 synthetic processes by which substances that in themselves 

 may be commonplace and inactive, such as carbo-hydrates, 

 fats, albuminoids, and ferments may be grouped or altered 

 in nature. The turn recently taken by organic chemistry in 

 reproducing artificially all those substances formerly believed 

 to be the exclusive work of life, and the achievement of 

 Marcellin Berthelot in producing synthetic sugar from 

 hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen, justifies us in believing that the 

 problem is not insoluble, and that, if the albuminoids still resist 

 our attempts, their resistance will not be of long duration. 

 However, we have yet a more delicate problem to solve — how 

 to compound the recipe of different substances that must be 

 combined if life is to be produced and maintained. This is a 

 task of particular difficulty, as we do not yet possess any precise 

 data on the constitution of those combinations in which 

 infinitesimal traces of certain bodies can bring about 

 fundamental changes. Yet what we are unable to achieve 

 was done spontaneously in the beginning. If we are to suppose 

 that elements capable of producing life when they come into 

 contact with each other were formed at a given moment under 

 influences still to be determined, they must have met and 

 combined in all sorts of proportions, and the most complex 

 combinations must have taken place as well as the most simple. 

 Those that fulfilled the particular condition under which the 

 reciprocal reactions of substances, accidentally brought 

 together, led to an increase in the quantity of the total, con- 

 stituted the earliest forms of living matter ; and we may 

 admit that such masses of living matter were at first 

 quite amorphous and of unlimited dimensions. Now there 

 exists a certain albuminoid substance which, when mixed 



