ii6 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



or is not, the seat of vital action leaves upon our 

 minds a doubt which we cannot attempt to remove 

 when such unstable bodies last only for a short time. 

 But when their life period can be prolonged, the 

 method of studying their behaviour is so largely 

 increased that operations can be observed with 

 considerable precision. 



It is this preliminary stage that von Schron 

 regards as the period during which vitality can be 

 ascribed to it. Only when that vitality has ceased is 

 this organism converted into a crystal. But of the 

 actual process which takes place during that unstable 

 state little or nothing is known, so much so that it 

 seems not improbable that the bodies thus formed 

 are really different from those produced when the 

 aggregates are, comparatively speaking, stable, as 

 when produced by the action of radio-active bodies 

 on organic media. 



Not unlike these crystalline aggregates are the 

 peculiar bodies which Quincke has investigated and 

 described as occurring in solutions of sUicic acid, 

 glue, or other colloids, when evaporated. They form 

 thin films on gelatinous masses, and their behaviour 

 is|very remarkable, as the bodies develop fissures. 

 Quiucke has shown that thin, viscous, oily films of 

 more concentrated solution exist in a less concen- 

 trated solution of the same substance, and form 

 folds, straight and twisted tubes, cylinders or cones, 

 spheres and bubbles, open and closed foam-cells with 

 visible and invisible foam-walls ; and he has recently 

 observed the formation of such "cells" even in 



