268 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



to light at some previous time and has remained 

 stored up in it. The infra-red rays are well known 

 to possess the power of destroying chlorophyll. 

 They also have a reversing action in photography. 



Now if the phenomenon of phosphorescence is 

 due, as we have tried to show, to the disintegra- 

 tion of large molecular groups in the manner 

 described, it is evident that when disturbed their 

 size will depend upon the wave-length of the dis- 

 turbances, and that the agglomeration thus formed 

 will be larger when the disturbances in the aether 

 correspond to the infra-red, than when they corre- 

 spond to the ultra-violet rays in the spectrum. 

 But there obviously will be a limit to the dimen- 

 sions which these molecules will attain, for by 

 collision and so forth they are bound to break up 

 when they get beyond a certain size. 



The influence of the infra-red rays would appear 

 to be to increase the size of the aggregates to 

 such an extent that they become so large as to 

 exceed the size at which they are able to hold 

 together, and thus break up as they should if the 

 temperature in the first instance was increased to 

 a sujQficient extent. 



The Function of a Nucleus. 



Now the existence of these molecules seems to 

 depend upon the presence of nuclei, and it is a 

 matter to be borne in mind that all the phenomena 

 in the aether which give rise to fluorescence also 



