28 Causes and Course of Organic Evolution 



day facts as will guide us. While fully accepting uniformi- 

 tarian principles as governing the changes then proceeding, 

 it seems absolutely necessary and appropriate to accept that 

 the rate and intensity of change on the earth's crust-surface 

 were considerable more accentuated than now, in fact formed 

 an average between the earlier "anhydrate" and "inorganic" 

 periods when granites and other rocks were forming, and our 

 o^m day with its restricted and slow crustal changes. So 

 between the active volcanic outbursts that the rocks of this 

 period attest to; the extensive geyser, mud volcano, and hot- 

 spring deposits that the cherts and limestones of the period 

 suggest; the denudation of the more loose volcanic material; 

 its subsequent rolling and conversion into conglomerates; the 

 setting free of many chemically active products in steaming 

 lacustrine, and shallow inland lake areas with formation there 

 of bog-iron deposits; and the abundant disengagement of 

 electrolytic bodies; conditions existed that favored progressive 

 colloid elaboration. 



From recent studies on colloids we now accept it that these 

 microscopically may closely resemble foamy mixtures such 

 as Btitschh (21) and later Krafft have carefully investigated, 

 and which in some cases may simulate complex protein com- 

 pounds, as described by Mann (22: 36). Furthermore, Traube 

 and Leduc have demonstrated by experiment that, where two 

 different liquids such as 4 per cent, potassium ferrocyanide 

 and a granule of cupric sulphate, or a liquid and a colloid body 

 such as tannic acid and mucilage, come in contact, chemical 

 changes are set up which cause formation of an enclosing mem- 

 brane or pellicle, and included materials that may be powerfully 

 osmotic. To quote Leduc's statement as given by Le Bon 

 (2: 359) "a granule of sulphate of copper of 1 mm. to 2 mm. 

 diameter, composed of about two parts of saccharose, one of 

 sulphate of copper and water to cause it to granulate, is planted 

 in an aqueous solution containing 2 per cent, to 4 per cent, 

 of ferrocyanide of potassium, 1 per cent, to 10 per cent, of 

 chloride of sodium and other salts, and 1 per cent, to 4 per 

 cent, of gelatine. It germinates in a space of time which varies 



