Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpts from the beginning of the SUMMARY.
IN this summary I shall in general pursue a course the reverse of that which my main work follows.* I shall proceed from the primitive, unorganized condition of matter and endeavor to show how organized micellar substance has arisen in it, and how, from this micellar substance, organisms with their manifold properties have arisen. Since such a synthesis of organisms out of known forms of matter and force is still far removed from a conclusion strictly in accord with physical law, the process becomes comprehensible and obvious only by exact knowledge of the discussion that has preceded. Although the synthetic method reveals more clearly the weaknesses of the theory than do analytic investigations, yet I considered it helpful to make this presentation in order to give a clearer idea of the mechanico-physiological theory, and at the same time to test its worth.
I. FORMATION OF UNORGANIZED BODIES (CRYSTALS).
When separated and promiscuously moving molecules of any substance in solution or in a melted condition pass into the solid form by reason of removal of the causes of separation and motion (warmth or solvent), they arrange themselves into solid masses impermeable to liquids. These minute bodies grow by accretion, and "when molecular forces are permitted to act undisturbed, assume the regular outer form and inner structure of crystals. The number of crystals, their size, changes of form and growth, all depend on external conditions.
2. FORMATION OF LIVING ORGANIZED (MICELLAR) BODIES.
Certain organic compounds, among them albumen, are neither soluble, despite their great affinity for water, nor are they fusible, and hence are produced in the micellar form. These compounds are formed in water, where the molecules that arise immediately adjoining each other arrange themselves into incipient crystals, or micella;. Only such of the molecules as are formed subsequently and come in contact with a micella contribute to its increase in size, while the others, on account of their insolubility, produce new micellae. For this reason the micellae remain so small that they are invisible, even with the microscope...
...3. SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. LIFE. GROWTH.
If molecular forces are so combined in an inorganic substratum that spontaneous formation of albumen takes place, then by the combination of the micellse the primordial plasma masses of spontaneous generation are given. Within these plasma masses the production of albumen goes on more easily under the influence of their molecular forces than in the liquid without. Hence the compounds present in the organic substratum and capable of forming albumen enter preferably into the masses of plasma, and by intussusception of micellse of albumen, cause growth. Here life exists in its simplest form. (See page 47.)
Spontaneous generation presupposes the origin of plasma-micella from molecules, and hence cannot be brought about by solutions of albumens or peptones, since these are micellar solutions.....
