NINETEENTH CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS 49 



a large number of facts are being reported in the scientific 

 literature which suggest the possibility of the production of 

 asymmetric substances independently of living things in the 

 presence of asymmetric factors acting in inorganic nature. 



In one of his later works, published in 1944," Vernadskii 

 seems to have taken account of these discoveries and did not 

 refer to this difference between living and inert matter but 

 only emphasised the fact that they differ in isotopic composi- 

 tion. The fact is that as early as 1926 Vernadskii demons- 

 trated that the isotopic composition of the elements present 

 in living organisms differs considerably from that of the 

 elements derived from minerals and rocks. HoAvever, bio- 

 genic formations which arise in association with living things 

 or after their death, such as soils, the waters of seas, rivers 

 and lakes, petroleums, coals and bitumens, retain the isotopic 

 composition characteristic of living things. Vernadskii there- 

 fore held that in this case one cannot a priori deny the 

 possibility of transition of matter from the dead (' bio-inert ') 

 to the living state, ' for the atomic composition of the living 

 and the inert matter may here be isotopically identical '. On 

 the other hand, the direct transition from materials which 

 have not arisen biogenically to living things would seem to 

 be excluded on account of the profound differences in 

 isotopic composition. However, as these biogenic formations 

 (' bio-inert ' substances) only develop in the presence of 

 organisms a closed circle of life is set up. 



One might infer from this that Vernadskii continued to 

 believe in the complete impassability of the gulf separating 

 the living from the lifeless, the complete impossibility of 

 the primary origin of life from inert matter. Ho^ve\er, such 

 a conclusion would be premature. In the ^vork Avhich Ave 

 have cited, Vernadskii shows convincingly, in a number of 

 concrete examples, that a quantitative change in the isotopic 

 composition of the elements " is not only characteristic of 

 living matter but also occurs in processes which ha\'e nothing 

 to do with life, as among the products of volcanic eruptions ". 

 The whole difference lies in the fact that changes in the 

 isotopic composition of the elements brought about by 

 organisms proceed on the surface of the earth at ordinary 

 temperatures and pressures, ^vhereas analogous changes in 



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