222 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



certain compounds in living substances which are not 

 to be found in dead cell-substance. The fact that 

 the biogens must contain a large quantity of energy 

 and be extremely labile has long been admitted, 

 and the analogy between them and explosive bodies 

 has more than once been pointed out. Pfliiger, as 

 has already been mentioned, pointed out that the 

 radical (CN) most probably exists in living sub- 

 stance and that it is absent in dead proteids, and 

 it is more probable, therefore, that the cyanogen 

 radical which is thus wanting in dead proteid is 

 present in the biogen molecule. 



Any labile and unstable compound of which 

 dynamite is composed is decomposed by electrical 

 means or by shocks into water, carbonic acid, 

 nitrogen, and oxygen. The biogen substance 

 doubtless also contains a vast store of energy, but 

 relatively to this is far more nearly stable, though 

 really unstable. 



The question then remains, Is the biogen a com- 

 pound or an element ? If it is a compound it 

 must at the same time be like the perpetually 

 self-producing substances which we call emanation, 

 and if it is an element it must at the same time 

 be highly unstable. 



On the whole, we have been led to think that 

 the biogen or substance that constitutes the ulti- 

 mate nucleus is something of the nature of a highly 

 unstable element which has many of the chemical 

 properties of the cyanogen radical ; that, in fact, 

 it is so very ill-defined as an element that the 



