CHAPTER III 



SYNTHESIS BY SUNLIGHT IN RELATIONSHIP TO THE 

 ORIGIN OF LIFE 



SYNTHESIS OP FORMALDEHYDE PROM CARBON DIOXIDE AND WATER 

 BY INORGANIC COLLOIDS ACTING AS TRANSFORMERS OF LIGHT 

 ENERGY. 



IT is important to emphasise the point that in considering the origin 

 of life in a world containing inorganic matter only, the nutrition of 

 the first living structure on such a world must be carefully borne in 

 mind. This observation is still true whether life is to be regarded 

 as arising de novo on the planet, or as being borne there from some 

 other planet as a germ from pre-existent life. No living organism 

 such as a bacterium or mould which did not possess the power of 

 transforming energy and of synthesising organic from inorganic 

 matter could exist or nourish in total absence of preformed organic 

 matter and must inevitably perish. 



A substance acting as a transformer of light energy with accom- 

 panying synthesis of organic from inorganic matter now exists in 

 our world, in chlorophyll, the green colouring matter of plants, 

 and also allied bodies such as the blue-green colouring matter of 

 the Cyanophycese 1 possess a similar power. But both these sub- 

 stances are exceedingly highly organised and complex, quite un- 

 suitable by their nature to be thought of as the first stage in the 

 evolution of organic from inorganic matter at the dawning of life in 

 a world hitherto devoid of anything organic. 



The protoplasm of the living cell also is built up of the most com- 

 plex organic compounds known to us such as could scarcely arise in 

 an entirely inorganic world as the first step from inorganic to organic 

 matter. 



The first primeval step would appear to be indicated by the union 

 of single crystalloidal inorganic molecules to form inorganic colloids, 

 and that these meta-stable colloids acting on inorganic carbon com- 

 pounds, such as carbon dioxide, in presence of water and sunlight, 



i The blue algae. 

 38 



