THE ASYMMETRY OF THE CYCLE OF LIFE 157
intra-uterine
life of the calf, a fact which goes to show this laevo-sugar to be formed in
the trophoblast, and not in the allantois. Doubtless, its disappearance
coincides with the development of large numbers of leucocytes in the foetus. To
my knowledge this laevo-sugar has more recently been rediscovered “ in the
placenta,” but I am not aware that the fact has been republished. Of course,
the “allantois” and the “placenta” are synonymous, but the real source of the
laevulose in both instances was asexual generation or trophoblast.
The
asymmetrical carbon atom, like its colleague, the pentavalent nitrogen one, has
hitherto found as little place or mention in medicine or in physiology as has
an antithetic alternation of generations. Man has thus found it possible to
dispense with things and phenomena indispensable to Nature, and but for which
he would have no existence ! Whatever matter may be, whatever the nature of
what we term “ living matter,” at the basis of life lie the fundamental facts
of the asymmetrical carbon atom and the isomeric compounds. At the base of all
animal or plant life, too, because of these facts, there rests the antithetic
alternation of generations. With the start of the asexual or the sexual phase
of the cycle, the naturally occurring compounds are built up in the one
direction or in the other. With the beginning of the next phase of the cycle,
the alternate one, sexual or asexual, the swing of the pendulum about the asymmetrical
carbon atom is on the other side, and the naturally occurring organic compounds
are built up in the opposite direction. In animal life, that of the higher
animals, the compounds are built up after the fertilization of the egg, and in
the life-period of the asexual generation in the direction of laevo-sugar,
laevo-glycogen, and dextro-albumins. This evolution of compounds is the
antithesis