SOURCES OF ENERGY 187 



Furthermore, the hydrosphere ot the Earth was no more 

 uniform then than it is now. In isolated parts of it, such as 

 land-locked basins of shallow water, gulfs or lagoons, evapora- 

 tion of water might have led to even higher concentrations 

 of organic substances. Local increases in concentration could 

 easily have been brought about by the adsorption of organic 

 substances on clays or other inorganic deposits on the bottom 

 and shores of the water as was suggested by J. D. Bernal in his 

 well-known book The physical basis of life.^^'^ 



Some authors, such as V. Vil'yams^^" and N. Kholodnyi,^'*^ 

 have even taken the view that the chemical processes leading 

 up to the appearance of life did not take place in the seas 

 and oceans but on the surfaces of particles of marl derived 

 from the primary mineral formations. B. B. Polynov,^^^ who 

 was very interested in questions concerning the migration 

 of the elements within the biosphere, also held this view. 



We must, however, emphasise most strongly that it was 

 the actual water of the hydrosphere which formed the neces- 

 sary medium in which arose the very complicated organic 

 compounds which later provided the material for the forma- 

 tion of the bodies of living things. Even now water forms 

 the predominant, though also the simplest, chemical com- 

 ponent of all ' living matter ' of the whole range of organisms 

 inhabiting the Earth. 



The complicated interactions of organic substances, their 

 synthesis and degiadation in living organisms, can only take 

 place in an aqueous medium and the water itself plays a 

 direct part in these processes. Whenever the water content 

 of a living body is substantially decreased there occurs either 

 complete destruction of that body or else anabiosis, the tem- 

 porary suspension of metabolism. 



Even if we adopt the hypothesis of Vil'yams and Kholodnyi 

 that the processes of transformation of organic substances 

 took place on the surfaces of mineral particles, it is still 

 necessary to assume the presence of water on these particles, 

 if not as droplets, at least in the form of a surface film. Only 

 under these conditions could there have taken place the 

 formation of complicated organic compounds such as exist 

 at present. This is to say that the situation on the particles 

 is similar to that in the water of the hydrosphere though, 



