146 THE CASE AGAINST EVOLUTION 



*'by some indication as to whether the origin of life has been 

 single or multiple. Modern opinion is, perhaps, inclined to 

 the multiple theory, but we have no real evidence. Indeed, 

 the problem still stands outside the range of scientific 

 investigation, and when we hear the spontaneous formation 

 of formaldehyde mentioned as a possible first step in the 

 origin of life, we think of Harry Lauder in the character of 

 a Glasgow schoolboy pulling out his treasures from his pocket 

 — "That's a wassher — for makkin' motor cars.'' ('Tresi- 

 dential Address," cf. Smithson. Inst. Rpt. for 1915, p. 375.) 



Bach, moreover, takes it for granted that the formation 

 of formaldehyde is really the first step in the synthesis per- 

 formed by the green plant, and he claims that formaldehyde 

 is formed when carbon dioxide is passed through a solution 

 of a salt of uranium in the presence of sunlight. Fenton 

 makes a similar claim in the case of magnesium, asserting 

 that traces of formaldehyde are discernible when metallic 

 magnesium is immersed in water saturated with carbon di- 

 oxide. But at present it begins to look as though the spon- 

 taneous formation and condensation of formaldehyde had 

 nothing to do with the process that actually occurs in green 

 plants. Certain chemists, while admitting that an aldehyde 

 is formed when chlorophyll, water, and air are brought to- 

 gether in the presence of sunlight, deny that the aldehyde in 

 question is formaldehyde, and they also draw attention to 

 the fact that this aldehyde may be formed in an atmosphere 

 entirely destitute of carbon dioxide. In fact, the researches 

 conducted by Willstatter and Stoll, and later (in 1916) by 

 Jorgensen and Kidd tend to discredit the common notion that 

 carbohydrate-production in plants is the result of a direct 

 union of water and carbon dioxide. Botany textbooks still 

 continue to parrot the traditional view. We cannot any 

 longer, however, be sure but that the term photosynthesis 

 may be a misnomer. 



Carbohydrate- formation in plants seems to be more anal- 

 ogous to carbohydrate- formation in animals than was for- 



