l88 ABIOGENIC ORGANIC-CHEMICAL EVOLUTION 



on the particles, the water does not exist in large basins but 

 is diffuse or subdivided. 



Unlike these authors, we feel that it is far more probable 

 that the formation of complicated organic compounds 

 occurred mainly in the waters of the seas and oceans. These 

 occupied a large part of the surface of the Earth and there- 

 fore the bulk of the carbon compounds accumulated in them. 

 The presence of large basins of water also enabled the migra- 

 tion of the non-volatile elements to take place faster and more 

 completely. This led to the formation of a particular mixture 

 of inorganic substances, many of which played an essential 

 part in the transformation of carbon compounds as catalysts 

 and even as components of the material of which ' living 

 matter ' is constructed. 



Vil'yams and Kholodnyi developed their hypotheses mainly 

 because they saw in the marl particles a protection for the 

 developing proteins against the disintegrative action of ultra- 

 violet radiation. However, at the stage of the development 

 of organic substances which we are now considering, the 

 action of the ultraviolet radiation might have played a 

 positive part, just as it did in the atmosphere. In the hydro- 

 sphere, however, this activity would be limited to the most 

 superficial layers because the ultraviolet radiations could not 

 penetrate deeper into the water. 



Thus there must have accumulated in the primaeval 

 hydrosphere considerable amounts of oxygen-, nitrogen- and 

 sulphur-containing derivatives of hydrocarbons coming partly 

 from the lithosphere, but mostly from the atmosphere. 

 The further transformation of these derivatives was partly 

 brought about by ultraviolet radiations but mainly by cata- 

 lytic processes. 



Among the catalysts taking part in these reactions there 

 may have been both salts in aqueous solution and also in- 

 soluble deposits on the surface of which the organic com- 

 pounds were adsorbed. The compounds which were formed 

 in the hydrosphere became more and more complicated and 

 it is therefore hard to imagine the whole course of the chemi- 

 cal processes which occurred there. 



