218 



The Plant World. 



action velocities directly affected by internal and external limit- 

 ing factors. 



The protamic mucleus may: be taken to represent the first 

 form in which self-generating matter might be said to- have the 

 characters of protoplasm, but previously to its synthesis, there 

 must have occurred an increasingly complex series of carbon 

 compounds with hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur and phos- 

 phorus, while iron, calcium, magnesiun and potasiun, are also 

 involved in its activities at the present time. That these main 

 constituents were present in the atmosphere at partial pressures 

 of varying intensity, and that unstable carbides, nitrides, phos- 

 phides and sulphides brought by infalling planetesimals were 

 passing into more stable unions, with the formation of hydro- 

 carbons, ammonia, hydrogen phosphide, etc., is suggested by 

 Chamberlin, and the possible interactions and combinations 

 might result in the synthesis of very complex substances, well 

 up toward the simpler forms of living matter. The hypothesis 

 formulated by him also assumes that the surface of the earth 

 was unworn piled talus, but little of which had gone into solution. 

 The development of the hydrosphere moistening this layer, and 

 forming pools and small bodies of water all exposed to the light 

 of the sun, together with the variations in temperature, partly 

 due to the heat of impact or infalling bodies, the influence of 

 magnetic fields induced by bodies circulating about the earth 

 would determine the paths of ions and electrons traversing them, 

 and in addition, other states of ionization due to radial activity, 

 would all be possible contributory factors in making a synthesis 

 that might form a beginning of the physical basis of life. Any 

 resulting thermo-catalyzer would be a possible agent for self- 

 organization, and in the development of an organic type, its 

 characteristic activities would consist in the degradation, or 

 reduction of the potential energy of the medium or substratum 

 and the oxidation of the acquired substances. Living matter 

 is, in fact, a thermal engine in which the oxidation is, compara- 

 tively, exceedingly slow. 



EXPERIMENTAL PRODUCTION OF SELF-GENERATING MATTER. 



It seems quite probable that combinations similar, analogous 

 or even identical with the^earliest forms of living matter might 

 -now be produced in the laboratory, in enclosed spaces or under 



