igG ABIOGENIC ORGANIC-CHEMICAL EVOLUTION 



Starting materials in an enclosed system without the partici- 

 pation of any dissymmetric auxiliary substance whatsoever. 

 C. Neuberg^" kept a specimen of the potassium salt of P- 

 methylvaleric acid for some years. During this time it par- 

 tially crystallised. When the crystals were separated from it, 

 the mother liquor was found to have considerable optical 

 activity. Another similar case has been described by E. 

 Havinga^^* who kept a solution of methylethylallylphenyl- 

 ammonium iodide in a sealed tube for two months and found 

 that optically active crystals with a considerable specific rota- 

 tion had separated out ([a]D + 27° in chloroform). In a later 

 publication Havinga"^ discussed the idea that even long 

 before the appearance of life there might have occurred on 

 the Earth similar spontaneous dissymmetric syntheses of 

 various organic compounds. 



Thus, in contrast to the pessimistic utterances of the turn 

 of the century, we now know of several ways by which opti- 

 cally active carbon compounds might have arisen primarily 

 on the Earth before the appearance of life. In our further 

 discussion we shall try to show what were the causes which 

 led to the fixing in protoplasm of the dissymmetry of organic 

 molecules which had arisen primarily, and what an essential 

 part this played in the general organisation of living things. 



Let us now turn to a consideration of what may be said 

 about the primary formation of the groups of compounds 

 most characteristic of life in the waters of the primaeval 

 ocean. We have a wide range of factual material obtained 

 from laboratory experiments relating to this matter. This 

 shows that the immediate oxygen, nitrogen and sulphur 

 derivatives of hydrocarbons, when dissolved in water in the 

 presence of various inorganic catalysts or adsorbed on clay 

 or other precipitates, cannot remain unchanged even at the 

 comparatively low temperatures which are common under 

 present conditions. 



By reacting with each other and with molecules of water 

 they undergo many of the reactions which occur by simply 

 allowing the solutions to stand in the laboratory, but which 

 may also be observed occurring as stages in the metabolism 

 of living organisms. There take place in the laboratory the 

 reactions of oxidation and reduction, aldol condensation, 



