28 Prof. B. Moore. The Production of Groicths or 



a different type, underlie the morphology also, but the methods of research 

 vary in the two cases. 



It is necessary to study how the organic constituents of living organisms 

 with their high content of energy may be formed by inorganic catalysts by 

 utilising other types of energy, such as sunlight ; it is also equally important 

 to pay attention to those visible microscopic forms which colloids assume 

 closely resembling the lower living forms, as the region between inorganic 

 and organic is traversed. 



It is highly important to be accurate and rigid in such observations, and 

 to realise that they are distinct from the discoveries of Pasteur. It is proven 

 that living organisms are least likely of all to arise in sterilised organic media, 

 but that has nothing to say as to how living organisms first arose, or arise 

 to-day. 



The problem is this — "What is the link between the organic and the 

 inorganic ? 



The forms of growth of crystals have been studied and classified, and it 

 seems reasonable that similar attention should be paid to the forms in 

 which colloids present themselves. 



The study of the more complex forms of growth lying between crystals and 

 living organic forms is closely beset with difficulties, on account of the very 

 difficulty of excluding living forms, for one is working here upon the stage 

 which is nearest to acknowledged living types. 



The effort in the present research had accordingly been to exclude as far 

 as possible any contamination, and to devise methods of research which 

 would yield only inorganic forms under conditions exclusive of life. 



The objective designedly was that of obtaining colloidal growths, and 

 observing how closely the appearances approach those of the lowliest known 

 forms of living organism. 



In such a quest, time is an element of the utmost importance. The 

 nature of the colloidal solutions is such that the usual crude procedures of 

 sterilisation are difficult or impossible of application. Antiseptics cannot be 

 employed, because they precipitate the colloid. Heating in an autoclave above 

 the normal boiling point of water, at atmospheric pressure, to 110 to 115° C, 

 often throws the complex inorganic colloid out of solution and activity. 



In order to rule out actual life processes events are hastened so as to 

 obtain in a few minutes effects of the same type as those which are usually 

 produced in days or weeks. It is not, therefore, to be expected that the 

 same delicacy and degree of organisation will be obtained as in the slower 

 processes of life, or of metastable colloidal solutions left to themselves for 

 much longer periods. 



