A Chemical Theory of Spontaneous Generation 



153 



pyrimidlnes vitamins etc 



Nucleic acid Enzymic protein 



conformed to 

 anabolites 



Nucleoprotein storing impression 

 of anabolites on protein held in 

 nucleoprotein 



daughter cell 

 B 



Fig. 4. Cyclical biosynthetic, enzymic, and genie process. 



This diagram pictures the first cell as having been formed 



in the first operation of the cycle. 



of the cycle beginning with the appropriate intermediates is then the production 

 of the first cell. Enzyme protein can thus be looked upon as an initiator of ana- 

 bolic reactions in the life history of the new cell and nucleoprotein can be 

 regarded as a device for memorizing the anabolic reactions. These devices can 

 be seen to operate for the first cell in a way similar to that visuaUzed by Beadle 

 for current cells. 



Although the entire picture presented in this paper integrates many levels and 

 areas of biochemical activity, it is, of course, incomplete. Such problems as 

 primordial fixation of nitrogen, origin of optical activity, membrane formation, 

 and modulation to an aqueous state from an anhydrous one have been or will 

 be treated elsewhere [12, 17]. Unique solutions for other component problems 

 must also be found. As the essential vaUdity of the main thesis is further tested, 

 answers to the other component problems may, however, be expected to appear 

 if the main thesis is correct. Life must have begun without the aid of such special 

 apparatus as we can assemble or obtain today, and the thermal experiments 

 and the interpretations of them continue to provide explanations which suggest 

 answers to additional component problems. One may expect that a final theory 

 will be a unified theory which will explain internally governed generation of the 

 biochemical world, emergence of Ufe, and the evolution of that memory mech- 

 anism of human mentahty which we can reasonably anticipate will eventually 

 solve in full the sahent problems of man's curiosity about his origins. 



