270 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



Effect of Surface Tension on Aggregates. 



By the experiments upon the effects of various 

 substances upon the afterglow in gases, it is found 

 that ether and other organic substances, such as 

 scents which destroy the surface-tension between 

 a liquid and a gas, also spoil the glow and render 

 it difficult, if not impossible, to reproduce the 

 phosphorescence in the same apparatus. 



It thus looks as if the existence of the luminous 

 molecules depends somehow upon surface tension 

 effects, and it is of interest to consider the manner 

 in which these two may be related. The exist- 

 ence of the glow depends, as I have said, upon 

 the presence of nuclei, so that the molecular 

 agglomerations evidently tend to accumulate round 

 these. 



In such an event, if the surface-tension by 

 which the molecules are kept together were 

 diminished, it would result in an increase in the 

 size of these molecular groups, since the surface 

 tension varies inversely as the radius of curvature, 

 the condensation on the nuclei will be greatly 

 increased. 



Many observers — Eichards, E. von Helmholtz, 

 Shelford Bidwell, Aitken, C. T. E. Wilson— have 

 found that condensation in gases is greatly facili- 

 tated by the presence of ions, and that negative 

 ions produce a greater condensation than positive 

 ones. 



The tendency of the electrified nucleus, therefore. 



