110 



of the tube and to the direction of an incident beam of polarised 

 light; and vice versa. 



If in a superposed magnetic and electrostatic field, with their 

 lines of force parallel to each other, a chemical reaction takes place 

 in which a racemic acid or base combines with an inactive base or 

 acid, it might under favorable circumstances perhaps be observed 

 that the reaction-velocities of the dextro-, and laevogyratory com- 

 ponents of the racemic substance which combines with the inactive 

 compound, were not the same, and that an optical activity of the 

 reaction-mixture were thus produced during the reaction. If such an 

 effect could really be demonstrated, the fact would be of the highest 

 importance with respect to the eventual origin of the first optically 

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

 of the complete "asymmetrical synthesis" of organic molecules. It 

 cannot be predicted a priori whether such effects will manifest 

 themselves or not ; and even if their possibility appear from theore- 

 tical reasons to be most probable, their magnitude, as was already 

 stated, may be so small as not to be detected by any experiment. 

 Only continual attempts 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 crystallisation-phenomena of salts containing iron, 

 cobalt or nickel ; or by trying to establish the fact of the predomi- 

 nant crystallisation of one of both enantiomorphous crystalforms 

 from solutions of substances such as sodiumchlorate, 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(Phen) 3 }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- 

 rides light, have been tried in the author's laboratory, but without 

 a positive result up to this date. 



x ) In these formulae: Eine = Ethylene-diamine: C Z H 4 (NH 2 ) 2 , and Phen = 

 ar(ortho)-Phenantroline : 



