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This volume is an interesting contribution to a subject that has been highly controversial since the dawn of history. The author, Associate Director of the Biochemical Institute, U.S.S.R. Academy of Science, is in agreement with present day thought as to the origin of the earth, but as to the changes taking place during the period of cooling and the consequent states of chemical equilibrium, he differs from certain authorities. He holds that chemical reactions of reduction preceded those of oxidation and upon this premise builds a tenable theory for the eventual formation of proteins, colloids, and colloidal gels. The stepping stone to the origin of life is a concept of colloid aggregates changing their structure and 'growing' under the influence first of catalysts and later of enzymes and promoters until certain organic nuclei were differentiated which, subject to the law of survival of the fittest, could most successfully react with the environment.
The necessary chemistry is kept in the simplest terms but is adequate for an understanding of the author's thesis. The book is written in an imaginative but straightforward style and is unusually well documented with a bibliography, including a high percentage of German, French, English, and American publications.
Besides its general appeal, the book is of interest to psychoanalysis chiefly because of the review of the early theories of the origin of life. These all held that life appeared spontaneously from filth. It is interesting that the author believes that one