THE CARBON AND NITROGEN CYCLES 103 



form of phosphates. Under some conditions mold action may- 

 give rise to small quantities of phosphin which must be again oxi- 

 dized before being available to higher plants. In either event, 

 the resulting phosphate is now ready to start on its cyclic journey 

 through the plant and animal organism. This is dramatically 

 outlined for a phosphorus atom by one writer as follows : 



"Where was I born? Ah, that I cannot tell you. It was far, 

 far, away from here, deep in the endless abyss of space, at an 

 epoch so distant that even the earth on which you live had not been 

 formed as yet; not even the great sun, now blazing in his glory, 

 nor any of the innumerable multitudes of stars of the great uni- 

 verse now shining in the sky. had as yet come into being. No, 

 they were mere cold whiifs of invisible vapor, scattered over all 

 space, remnants of worlds vanished aeons before this great uni- 

 verse began. Out of the vast I came, born into that great sea of 

 Ether which stretches unbroken from star to star through all the 

 endless depths of space. Some vast change, some murmuring and 

 stirring of gigantic forces in its bosom, forces scarce known, 

 scarce dreamt of, but working there in irresistible might, £rst 

 brought me into being, and I hung suspended in the great void. It 

 was utterly cold and utterly dark, and gleaming afar in the dis- 

 tance I could see the myriad fires of the great worlds and suns of 

 space shining at me through the darkness. How long I hung in 

 the void I know not. It was millions upon millions of years. 

 Then atoms began to gather round me, streamwise, coming from 

 afar in phosphorescing torrents, and I perceived that I already 

 formed part of a mighty mass of gas, a huge nebula, which 

 stretched its gigantic arms out for millions of miles, like vast 

 flaming swords, through the darkness of space. And so I hung 

 for aeons of ages, while atom after atom in an endless stream 

 flashed past me in the gloom, while the great nebula slowly drew 

 together in its glory, and began to take shape and form. Then 

 the temperature began to rise in leaps and bounds. It grew stifling 

 hot, and great lightnings flashed and quivered about me, and we 

 atoms crowded more and more together, colliding, whirling, fly- 

 ins:. Each second I smote a thousand million atoms and at each 



