107 



( (iiujx. uiid. \\viv not the same, and that an optical activity of the 



,i. tit tn-mi\ture were thus produced during the reaction. If such an 

 llr. t could really be demonstrated, the fact would be of the highest 



iportance with respect to the eventual origin of the first optically 

 substances on earth, i. e. with respect to the primitive question 

 tf the "asymmetrical synthesis" of organic molecules. It cannot be 

 irtrd a priori whether such effects will manifest themselves or 

 lot; and even if their possibility appear from theoretical reasons to be 

 most probable, their magnitude, as was already stated, may be so 



lall as not to be detected by any experiment. Only continual at- 

 tempts in this direction can bring real progress in such cases. Perhaps 

 promising experiments of this kind could be made by investigating 

 the influence of superposed magnetic and electric fields on crystalli- 

 sation-phenomena of salts containing iron, cobalt or nickel; or by 

 trying to establish the fact of the predominant crystallisation of one 

 enantiomorphous crystal-form from solutions of substances such 

 as sodium-chlorate, the molecules of which are doubtless themselves 

 enantiomorphous, and can evidently congregate to dextrogyrate 

 or laevogyrate structures. 



It would be of interest also to investigate, if a substance the mole- 

 cules of which have an enantiomorphous or asymmetrical structure, 

 would possibly show a magnetic polarisation, if placed in a strong 

 electrostatic field. Objects of this kind might be found amongst 

 the crystals of the remarkable mirror-stereoisomerides of complex 

 salts, as [Co(Eine) 3 }X 3 , and { Fe(Pheri). A } X 2 ; etc. 1 ) Some ex- 

 periments with these objects and others, on the relative decom- 

 position-velocities of both antipodes in photochemical reactions 

 under the influence of dextro- or laevogyratory, circularly pola- 

 rised light, have been started in the author's laboratory. 



18. Finally some very short remarks on another subject. In the 

 preceding paragraphs we have not dealt with the symmetry in the 

 arrangement of numerical data as they are often found as the 

 result of statistic investigations on a great number of facts, be- 

 cause this subject is, properly speaking, merely a chapter of pure 

 mathematics. 



That there are often to be detected symmetrical arrangements of 

 such numbers in cases of numerical arrangement, where series of 



1) In these formulae: Eine Ethylene-diamine: C^H^(NH^ % , and Phen 

 at.-Phenantroline : C 12 H B N Z . 



