226 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



densed electricity, which we call matter, there is 

 the unsteady and unstable state which, corre- 

 sponding as it would to the liquid state of elec- 

 tricity, and admitting as it would of various states 

 of motion, enables it to give rise to the vast 

 complexity of types of which such biogens seem 

 possible. 



The analogy with the liquid state of matter is 

 scarcely adequate, and that of the nebular as 

 compared with solar systems is probably a more 

 happy one. It is evident that just as a solar 

 system is the more stable product of aggregations, 

 which once constituted a solar system, so also 

 biogen corresponds to the substance which in 

 the course of time becomes condensed into atoms, 

 the order of magnitude in time for the electronic 

 aggregations is not of days nor years but probably 

 thousands of years. 



It is curious that the four elements hydrogen, 

 oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon, which are the 

 principal elements in living substance, are also the 

 simplest or rather the lightest elements of each 

 group. And according to modern theories, these 

 elements should be the final products of other and 

 less stable groups of electrons. 



Thus thorium, which is unstable, would become 

 converted into another and lighter element. As 

 uranium becomes converted into radium, so also 

 thorium will become converted into lead and 

 perhaps also into carbon. 



It is noteworthy, however, that sulphur and 

 phosphorus, which come next to oxygen and 



