II04 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



changes in the numbers and dispositions of the electrons and pro- 

 tons of which all kinds of matter are now believed to consist. Like 

 changes in Organic Evolution, they occur in definite directions; 

 like organisms, these elements give rise to others different from 

 themselves. It must also be remembered that the change from one 

 organic species to another may not be so qualitative as it seems at 

 first glance; in some cases it may mean fundamentally the rise of 

 a new protein. Moreover, it is interesting to note that a series 

 of species, as among roses, may differ from one another in the 

 regular increase of the number of their nuclear chromosomes, 

 forming, for instance, a series of 14, 28, 56 chromosomes. But 

 however inclined one may be to discover a chemical basis for 

 specific individuality, one cannot pretend that the "pedigrees" 

 disclosed by the radio-active changes are of the same nature as 

 those studied by biologists; and it is suggested that the old word 

 Transmutation might be conveniently earmarked for the changes 

 by which one chemical element gives rise to another. 



(3) Chemical Synthesis. — But there is another process of 

 chemical change that has a suggestion of Organic Evolution and 

 cannot be left unconsidered. We refer to the process by which the 

 synthetic chemist builds up compounds — especially carbon-com- 

 pounds — ^which are often of surprising novelty. Out of relatively 

 simple materials he manufactures such subtleties as indigo, salicylic 

 acid, and adrenalin. Often he makes things which are entire 

 novelties, unrepresented in Nature, so he is not undeserving of the 

 honour of being called "creative". In this connection it must be 

 noted that according to Prof. Baly and his collaborators, it is 

 possible to work up from carbon- dioxide and water to formaldehyde 

 with the aid of light alone. In other words, what the living green 

 leaf does has been mimicked artificially. Continuing the influence of 

 light, Baly has caused the molecules of formaldehyde to unite to 

 form simple sugars. He has also succeeded in bringing about a union 

 of nitrates and formaldehyde in a test-tube subjected to the light 

 of a quartz-mercury lamp. As ammonium nitrate or something 

 similar might be brought to earth by rain following a severe 

 thunderstorm, we see that the natural synthesis of the raw materials 

 of the living organism is not so remote as it seemed a few years ago. 

 There is this further interest that these novelties furnish good 

 instances of new syntheses or "emergences". For, as in the familiar 

 synthesis of water from hydrogen and oxygen, new properties 

 emerge, unexpected if not unpredictable. For this kind of Becoming 

 we suggest that the usual term "Chemical Synthesis" is altogether 

 appropriate, with the adjectives natural and artificial prefixed if 

 need be. 



(4) Organic Evolution. — It seems like a gratuitous courting of 

 confusion to mix up the biological term "Development" with the 



