THE ATMOSPHERE 39 



that fails to react with many substances (with nearl}- all bio- 

 logical substances) it serves also as a factor of biochemical 

 stability. 



In relation to the application of our theory of action, re- 

 action, and interaction to the processes of life, the most im- 

 portant property of water is its electric property, known as 

 the dielectric constant. Although itself only to a slight degree 

 dissociated into ions, it is the bearer of dissolved electrolytic 

 substances and thus possesses a high power of electric conduc- 

 tivity, properties of great importance in the development of the 

 electric energy of the molecules and atoms in ionization. Thus 

 water is the very best medium of electric ionization in solution, 

 and was probably essential to the mechanism of life from its 

 very origin.^ 



Through all the electric changes of its contained solvents 

 water itself remains very stable, because the molecules of 

 hydrogen and oxygen are not easily dissociated; their union 

 in water contributes to the living organism a series of proper- 

 ties which are the prime conditions of all physiological and 

 functional activity. The great surface tension of water as 

 manifested in capillary action is of the highest importance to 

 plant growth; it is also an important force acting within the 

 formed colloids, the protoplasmic substance of life. 



Primordial Environment — The Atmosphere 



It is significant that the simplest known living forms derive 

 their chemical "life elements" partly from the earth, partly 

 from the water, and partly from the atmosphere. This was 

 not improbably true also of the earliest living forms. 



One of the mooted questions concerning the primordial 



^Henderson, Lawrence J., 1913, p. 256. 



