556 Prof. B. Moore. Presence of Inorganic Iron 



a motor effect on the pregnant human uterus, and that, therefore, the use of 

 sympathomimetic substances in labour is justified. 



Summary. 



The movements have been recorded of the isolated non-pregnant human 

 uterus and Fallopian tube. Adrenine has a powerful motor action on both 

 these organs. The deduction is drawn that this is the qualitative effect of 

 sympathetic innervation of the human uterus, at least when non-pregnant. 



Pituitrin also stimulates the human uterus proper to contraction, but no 

 such effect has been definitely obtained on the Fallopian tube. 



The Presence of Inorganic Iron Compounds in the Chloroplasts 

 of the Green Cells of Plants, considered in Relationship to 

 Natural Photo-synthesis and the Origin of Life. 



By Benjamin Moore, D.Sc, F.B.S., Professor of Biochemistry, University of 



Liverpool. 



(Received March 11,— Read April 30, 1914.) 



(From the Johnston Biochemical Laboratory, University of Liverpool.) 



It has been demonstrated by Moore and Webster* that colloidal solutions , 

 or suspensions, of salts or oxides of iron, in presence of dissolved carbon 

 dioxide and with the energy supply of sunlight, possess the power of synthe- 

 sising formaldehyde. Since this is known to be the first step in the process 

 of organic synthesis of the substance of all living plants and animals from 

 inorganic material and must, moreover, have occurred in past ages over 

 immense areas of the earth's surface before life began to exist on the planet, 

 the conclusion was drawn that life must have originated by continual 

 development of more and more complex organic substances from this simple 

 commencement. 



It is in this first stage of all that the greatest production of chemical 

 energy occurs, and accordingly a transformer of light energy into chemical 

 energy is essential. Although the more highly organised carbohydrates and 

 proteins still require catalysts for their synthesis, weight for weight they 

 contain scarcely any greater storage of chemical energy than formaldehyde, 

 * ' Eoy. Soc. Proc.,' B, vol. 87, p. 163 (1913). 



