CONTENTS 



Evolution of Life on the Earth 1 



The First Approach: Vital Growth and Crystallization 13 



1. The Development of Crystals under Various Conditions 15 



2. Pfeiffer's .Method of "Sensitive Crystallization" 18 



3. Network and Stripe Formation in Gelatin 28 



4. The Problem of Relation of Living Growth to Crystallization. 



Conditions Determining the Size of Growing Crystals 37 



5. Are Crystals Produced by Vital Growth? 39 



6. X-Rays Furnish a Means of Proving the Existence of Crystals 



in Living Matter 41 



Summary 45 



The Second Approach: Life, Carbon's Outstanding Property 47 



1. The Rise of Modern Chemistry, the Key to the Mysteries of 



Life 40 



2. The Fundamental Laws of Scientific Chemistry. ... 56 



3. The Compounds of Carbon 58 



4. How are Carbon Compounds Made in the Living Nature?.. . . 64 



5. The Problem of Spontaneous Generation of Life 67 



6. The Smallest Living Thing Compared with the Smallest 



Particle of Non-Living Matter 69 



7. The Virus in Chemically Pure Form and its Crystallization . 72 



8. Life as the Property of a Highly Specialized Kind of Matter 76 



9. Historical Remarks on the Problem of Artificial Generation of 



Life 79 



10. The Origin of Life on the Earth 81 



11. The Slow Development of Life: In Its Earliest Beginnings; 



Its Further Course 82 



12. Life on Other Planets 87 



Summary 88 



Addendum. A Survey of Oparin's Book: The Origin of Life... 89 



55426 



IX 



