The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1910-10-20
step IN CHEMISTRY
Progressing Very Close to the
Secret of Life.
Physical Function Of Green Plants Re.
produced-synthesls Made by Nav
Physics Presented by vener.
able Prof. JunsfeIsch.

AAo AA9 ACouSuy OIL
was startled at a recent meeting by
The announcement of a great step for.
ward that has been made in the chem.
lstry and physics Of living things. 1t
Is not a laboratory creation of life, or
In any way the Transformation Of in.
organic matter into an organism. But
It is the laboratory production Of
chemical substances which in nature
are produced by living things ex.
clusively-and by the same physical
process which living things employ.
More thar half a century ago the
famous Berthelot won his renown as
the greatest living chemist by this
compromising Of what naturally are
organic products, from inorganic mat
ter-the synthesis Of organic com.
pounds. His son, Daniel Berthelot, has
now made the synthesis by natures
own process-"chlorophyll assimila-
ton" This is the physical function
exercised by green plants in sunlight,
namely. tho Transforming of carbon
existing as a mineral into carbon ex.
listing In an organic state.
Plants do this by feeding on air;
they get the material which they trans.
form from the carbonic acid and water
vapor Of the air around them. The or.
gan1c compounds Of carbon which
plants produce serve as food for high.
Or living beings. Without this chloro.
phyll function Of plants. which thus
assimilate the carbon of our atpos.
phere, there Is no life on our globe.
Now this chlorophyn assimilation has
been reproduced artifcially by Daniel
Berthelot and his assistant, Henri
Gaudechon, in all its fundamental &C.
lion.
For this purpose they use purely
physical means and not chemical reac.
ton. Under the influence of the ultra.
violet rays produced by a mercury va.
por lamp, they have obtained exclu.
sively from the air, that is, from its
carbonic acid and water vapor, a mum.
Der Of organic compounds. They have
thus accomplished the synthesis Of
ternary compounds, beginning with
methylic aldehyde, whose condensa.
ton gives sugars and starches; and
they have gone on to the synthesis of
Quarternary compounds, beginning
with formic amide-and this is the
very starting point of those albuminoid
bodies which are the basis of proto.
plasm or living matter.
This means that we have COME close
up to Huxley's physical basis of life.
We have not overstepped the dividing
line between living and notifying
things. Nature has still a process by
which these carbon compounds enter
into the colloid. automatically assim.
uating state; and this is the resultant
Of their own assimilation by the living
cell. This, too, is physical, like every.
thing In nature, but whether the
process shall be eternally limited to
the cell itself-omne vivum exovo-is
still the mystery of life. Daniel Der.
thelotis discovery does not touch it.
The new discovery marks an epoch
In science for another reason. The
elder Berthelot used the physical en-.
ergtes known to chemistry in his
time, particularly light and heat. His
son has successfully harnessed to his
uses the wonderful energy newly
known but commonest of all in univer.
sal nature-the radiant energy which
nature herself Uses in Transforming
Inorganic elementary matter into or.
ganic living tissue,
This new synthesis made by the
new physics was presented to the
Academy of Sciences by the venerable
Professor Jungleisch, who wrought
for a lifetime with Berthelot and sue.
ceeded to his chair at the College de
France. It would be intensely inter-
esting to know if the dead master
foresaw these new lines of research
along which his son proceeds so tri.
lmphantly. 1t is difficult for us, ever
now that w have been told about it,
To foresee how far the new road will
tooa .". H... s