320 



bility of such a different interaction of chemical or physical forces 

 and enantiomorphous complexes of atoms has not been demonstrated 

 experimentally, the problem of the beginning of one-sided synthesis 

 in the vegetal and animal kingdoms must be considered to be a 

 yet unsolved mystery. No other causes can be taken into account, 

 therefore, when considering the origin of the first optically active 

 substance, than those physical causes outside the range of life, which 

 are dissymmetrical in themselves, in the sense explained in Chapter F. 

 Now Byk tries to prove, that such a one-sided cause has existed 

 on earth for immeasurable ages, and more particularly, that the 

 source of photochemical energy having the special dissymmetry 

 necessary for such complete asymmetrical synthesis, was the circularly 

 polarized light, reflected, while under the influence of terrestrial 

 magnetism l ), at the surface of the seas and oceans 2 ). He proves, 

 that the coincidence of the wave-length, for which light-absorption 

 is a maximum, and for which photochemical action is an optimum 3 ), 

 also holds good, as Cotton demonstrated 4 ), in the case of the 

 cupri-alkali-salts of d-, and l-tartaric acids, which absorb right- and 

 left-handed circularly polarised light in a different way. From this 

 Byk concludes that the velocity of photochemical action must, there- 

 fore, be different, when such antipodes are attacked by circularly 

 polarized light of oppositely directed rotation. And he proves that 

 this must be true also for Fehling's solution, because the light- 

 absorption of the ions in dilute solutions must, as Ostwald 5 ) also 

 contends, be considered as independent of the presence of other 

 ions. From this it follows as a logical consequence, that in the case 

 of optical antipodes in an externally compensated mixture, it is 

 possible for the chemical process to go on at different velocities, 

 when these antipodes are attacked by circularly polarized light of 

 a definite direction of rotation. The author tries to demonstrate, 

 that on earth really all conditions have always been fulfilled for 

 causing a constant excess of circularly polarized light of a definite 

 direction of rotation. The possibility, even the necesssity, of the 



1) H. Becquerel, Compt. rend, de 1'Acad. d. Sc. Paris, 108, 997, (1899). 



2 ) J. Jamin, Compt. rend, de 1'Acad. d. Sc. Paris, 31, 696, (1850). 



) J. M. Eder, Sitzb. Akad. d. Wiss. Wien, 90, 1097, (1885); 92, 1346, (1885); 

 94, 75, (1886). 



4 ) A. Cotton, Ann. de Chim. et Phys., (7), 8, (1896); Journ. de Chim. phys. 

 7, 94, (1909); MacDowell, Phys. Review, 20, 162, (1905). 



5) W. Ostwald, Zeits. f. phys. Chemie, 9, 579, (1892). 



