THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 29 



there seems to be no laborious process of synthesis 



no long chain of substitution compounds before the 

 final product is evolved. 



But the property of decomposing ammonia and of 

 feeding upon elementary mineral substances is by no 

 means confined to the higher plants. The same power 

 is possessed by Conferva vulgar is and other low algae, 

 as was demonstrated by M. Bineau nearly twenty years 

 ago 1 , whilst nearly ten years afterwards it was ascer- 

 tained by M. Pasteur that some of the lowest kinds of 

 fungi, the Mucedine<e^ were capable of growing and 

 multiplying in a solution of sugar and tartrate of 

 ammonia, to which a trace of some phosphate had been 

 added. Referring to Pasteur's observations, Baron 

 Liebig says : ^ It is astonishing that this discovery has 

 not attracted more attention in regard to a special 

 point, for it comprises a fact of very great significance 



] His experiments were made with Conferva vulgaris and Hydrodictyon 

 pentagonals. M. Bineau says : ' Des quantites jug^es a 1'oeil egales 

 entre elles de chacune des deux especes d'Algues mentionne'es furent 

 enfermees dans des flacons a 1'dmeri bien bouches d'un peu plus d'un 

 demi-litre, avec 250 centimetres cubes d'eau, contenant 12 millioniemes 

 d'ammoniaque, ajoutee a 1'etat de chlorhydrate et une quantite un peu 

 moindre d'azotate de chaux. Les flacons furent ensuite exposes, les uns 

 sur une fenetre oh ils recevaient les rayons du soleil les autres dans 

 le voisinage, mais dans 1'obscurite. . . . Apres dix jours, le liquide de 

 chaque flacon fut filtre et soumis a un essai ammoniame'trique, . . . On 

 a trouve que 1' Hydrodictyon avait fait disparaitre au soleil presque les 

 trois quarts de rammoniaque, et le Conferva vulgaris pres de la moitie. 

 A I'obscurite 1'absorption de rammoniaque fut environ moitie moindre. 

 . . . Dans aucun des liquides des flacons il ne resta la moindre trace 

 appreciable d'azote.' (' Me"m. de 1'Acad. des Sciences de Lyon,' t. iii. 

 I853-) 



