Organisms and Their Origin 117 



istic properties of self-decomposition and recon- 

 struction. He indicated the similarities between 

 cyanic acid (HCNO) — a product of the oxidation 

 of cyanogen — and proteid material, which is ad- 

 mitted to be an essential part, at least, of all living 

 matter. "This similarity is so great," he said, 

 "that I might term cyanic acid a half-living mole- 

 cule." As cyanogen and its compounds arise in 

 an incandescent heat when the necessary nitrog- 

 enous compounds are present, they may have 

 been formed when the earth was still an incan- 

 descent ball. "If now we consider the immeasu- 

 rably long time during which the cooling of the 

 earth's surface dragged itself slowly along, cyan- 

 ogen and the compounds that contain cyano- 

 gen- and hydrocarbon-substances had time and 

 opportunity to indulge extensively in their great 

 tendency toward transformation and polymeriza- 

 tion, and to pass over with the aid of oxygen, and 

 later of water and salts, into that self-destructive 

 proteid, living matter."^ 



Verworn adopts and elaborates this suggestion: 

 Compounds of cyanogen were formed while the 

 earth was still incandescent; with their property 

 of ready decomposition they were forced into cor- 

 relation with various other compounds likewise 

 due to the great heat; when water was precipitated 



i Quoted by Verworn, "General Physiology" (1899), 

 p. 307. 



