304 



of that which was the beginning of all the existing one-sided 

 chemical synthesis in plants and animals, we should now be 

 living in a world which would be the very mirror-image of this 

 world, - - and, of course, not a happier one than the present is. 



But here the last and most fundamental problem forces itself 

 insistently on us: what was the origin of that first optically 

 active substance which determined and predestinated the direction 

 of natural synthesis for all later times? 



In contrast with the contentions of vitalism, and quite in the 

 line of what was said with respect to our present conception of 

 the analogy between natural and artificial synthesis, we can only 

 guess that the formation of that first dissymetrical molecule- 

 species was certainly not connected with that of the first "living" 

 particle. Indeed, the formation of such an optically active mole- 

 cule, either alone and unaccompanied by its antipode, or together 

 with its racemic compound, can within the scope of our present 

 views only have occurred by dissymmetrical influences outside all 

 living organisms. 1 ) 



The dissymetrical synthesis under such conditions is the only 

 true "asymmetrical synthesis"; we will distinguish it from that 

 previously mentioned, by the name "complete" asymmetrical 

 synthesis. 



Until such a complete asymmetrical synthesis has been directly 

 performed with success, we cannot claim that we absolutely under- 

 stand natural synthesis in its full significance. We will return to 

 this problem later on. 



9. Experiments on partial "asymmetric synthesis", as discussed 

 above, have, however, been successfully made during the last 

 twenty years. One of the first attempts of this kind was made 

 in 1894 by Simon 2 ), who prepared the ether from inactive 

 lactic acid and laevogyratory amyl-alcohol', saponification by means 

 of KOH of the ether formed, gave, however, only an inactive 

 acid. Simon concludes that evidently no partial separation of 

 the racemic compound has taken place. If he had not completed 

 the reaction, but had stopped it, before equilibrium was reached, or 



1 ) However, Pasteur seems in later years to have given up these ideas to 

 some extent; cf.: Bull, de la Soc. Chim. Paris, 41, 219, (1884); A. Cotton, Journ. 

 de Chim. phys., 7, 86, 87, (1909). 



2 ) L. Simon, Bull, de la Soc. Chim. Paris, (3), 11, 760, (1894). 



