Evening star., 1922-07-14

T.rious Illness in an old 5th avenue house used
ny Russian radicals OF Nassiit saratossky,
samarovs. They have fever. seemingly in
dnced by a poison. After seeing saratovsky,
the dancer sama.ova is in love with kazano-
witch, and DR.. Kharkon il in love with Sama-
ES,,.r,ns VA, M NeT.Hy. q devo,ee Of til. cause. who
dsbblss in chemistry Kennedy picks up iet
ter addressed to Alexander Orion. in Paris.
and takes II home TO read
n ETwEEN two pieces of smooth
- wood Craig laid the letter nat.
so that the edges projected
about a thirty-second of an
inch. He fattened the projecting
edge of the envelope. then roughened
it, and finally slit it open.
You see. Walter. later I will place
tho letter back, apply hair line OF
strong white gum and unite the edges
OF the envelope under pressure. Let
US see what we have here.
He drew out what seemed to he a
manuscript on very thin paper and
spread it out HAT on the table before
us Apparently II was scientihc
paper on a rather unusual subject.
Spontaneous Generation of Life 1t
was in longhand.
will not attempt to reproduce IN
facsimile the entire manuscript, for
II is unnecessary, and. in fact, !
merely set down part of its contents
because it seemed so utterly value
less TO me at the time. II went on
TO say:
While Betailion punctured the eggs
with a platinum needle and developed
them by means of electric discharges.
Loeb in America placed eggs OF the
sea-urchin in strong solution Oh
sea water. then in bath where they
were subjected to the action or
butyric acid. Finally they were
placed in ordinary sea water again.
where they developed in the natural
manner Delage at Roscorf used a
liquid containing salts of magnesia
and tannate Of ammonia to produce
In his latest book on THE Origin OF
Life" DR.. Charlton Bastian tells OF
using two solutions. One consisted of
two or three drops Of dilute sodium sill
pernitratis to one ounce of distilled
water. The other was composed OF
the same amount OF the silicate with
six drops OF dilute phosphoric acid
and six grains OF ammonium phosphate.
He filled sterilized tubes. sealed them
Theoretically and heated them to 12a
or las degrees centigrade. although
so or 20 degrees would have killed
any bacteria remaining in them
Next he exposed them to sunlight
four months. When the tubes were
opened DR.. Bastian found organisms
in them which differ in no way
from real bacteria. They grew and
multiplied. He contends that he has
proved the possibility of spontaneous
Eeneration of life.
Then there were the experiments of
John Butler Burke of Cambridge. who
claimed that he had developed "radi-
obes'' in tubes OF sterilized boulllon
by means OF radium emanations
Daniel Berthelot in France last year
announced that he had used the ultra
violet rays to duplicate natures own
process of ohlorophyll assimilation.
He has broken up carbon dioxide and
water vapor in the air in precisely
the same way that the green cells OF
plants do 1t.
Leduo at Nantes has made crystals
grow from an artificial "egg" COM
posed Of certain chemicals. These
phenomena without being actually
alive. His work is interesting, for
1t shows the physical forces that
probably control minute life cells,
once they are created.
What do you make OF it, asked
y
my face as I finished reading.
We'll recent research in the prob
lem OF the origin of life may be very
interesting" I replied. There are a
good many chemicals mentioned here.
I wonder il any of them are poison
GUS? But T. am of the opinion that
there is something more to this
manuscript than mere scientific pa
per"
Exactly: waltsr,, said Kennedy Kennedy in in
know was how would you suggest get
ting at that something"
Study as might, I could make moth
ing out of II. Meanwhile Craig was
busily figuring with a piece of paper
and a pencil.
II give 1t up. Craig" said at last.
"It is late. Perhaps We had better
both turn in. and we may have some
ideas on 1t in the morning.
For answer he merely shook his
head and continued to scribble and
figure on the paper. With reluc-
tant goodnight l shut my door. de-
termined to be up early In the morn
ing and 60 for the tubes that Khar-
koff was to prepare.
But in the morning Kennedy was
gone. dressed hastily. and was
just about to go out when he hur-
ried in. showing plainly the ef1ects
of having spent a sleepless night.
He flung an early edition of news
paper on the table.
TOO late" he exclaimed. "I tried
to reach Kharkof,, but It was too
Another East Side bomb outrage"
read while returning at q late
hour last night from a patient, DR..
Nicholas Kharkoff- Of - East
Broadway was severely injured by q
hallway earlier In the evening. DR..
Kharkoff. who is a we'll known physi-
clan on the East Side. states that he
has been constantly shadowed by
,ome one unknown for the past week
or two. He attributes his escape
with his life to tho fact that since
he was shadowed he has observed ex-
treme csution. Yesterday his cook
was poisoned and Is now dangerously
III. DR.. Kharkoff stands high in the
Russian community. and 1t is thought
by the police that the bomb was
placed by a Russian political agent.
as Kharkoff has been active in the
ranks of the revolutionists'
But what made you anticipate it?"
asked of Kennedy, considerably
mystifed.
Tho manuscript" he replied.
The manuscript? How? Where is
After I found that 1t was too late
TO save Kharkof and that he was
we'll cared for at the hospital. 7 hur-
ried to Saratovskys. Kharkoff had
fortunately left the tubes there and
the manuscript in the letter. was
roinE to ask you to slip upstairs by
some strategy and return 1t where I
found IL whom you went for the tubes
this morning. KAIanovitch was out.
and I have returned 1t myself. so you
need not go now"
Hes coming to see you today. isn't
da>~