86 A SCIENTIFIC APPROACH 



the original water on the surface of the Earth was near to 

 boiling point, were, according to Mereschkowsky, ' biococci ', 

 minute ultramicroscopic particles of ' mycoplasm '. They 

 were completely structureless but were already able to syn- 

 thesise proteins and carbohydrates directly from inorganic 

 substances. The first things to be formed from these ' bio- 

 cocci ' were bacteria. 



Later, when the temperature of the water on the Earth 

 had fallen below 50° C and an abundance of organic nutrients 

 had appeared in it as a result of the vital activity of the 

 biococci, there were formed small masses of ' amoeboplasm ' 

 which crawled along the bottom of the ocean and devoured 

 the bacteria. The cells with nuclei which we now meet arose 

 as a result of the symbiosis of these two different types of 

 organism when the biococci which had entered the amoebo- 

 plasm were not digested but manifested their capacity for 

 symbiosis. 



The characteristic feature of this fantastic theoiy of the 

 emergence of life is that it laid special emphasis on the 

 essential difference between the cytoplasm and the nucleus, 

 giving the first importance to the independent origin of the 

 latter. 



Similar ideas were propounded by the well-known English 

 biologist E. Minchin. According to Minchin,^* the first living 

 things were minute, ultramicroscopic particles of chromatin. 

 These particles were endowed with the ability to metabolise 

 substances independently and, in particular, to synthesise 

 organic compounds from simpler inorganic salts. It was only 

 later that the protoplasm enveloping them was formed and 

 this, in the last analysis, only acted as a medium for their 

 existence. 



We have dwelt in some detail on these hypotheses because 

 they have been reflected to some extent in the views concern- 

 ing the emergence of life which are now held in certain 

 circles. 



Attempts to construct ' models of 

 living organisms'. 



Attempts to solve the problem of the origin of life by 

 producing so-called ' models of living bodies ' were crudely 



