2132.     LOEW, O.  [Organic Substances in Primitive Times.]  Ztschr. angew. Chem., vol. 40, 1927, pp. 1548-1549; Chem. Abs., vol. 22, 1928, p. 2361.

        It would be interesting to ascertain the 1^st organic compounds that existed on the earth.  Moissan, working with carbides, concluded that they must have been hydrocarbons.  Metal carbides were probably formed as the nebular mass cooled.  In time, when temperature conditions permitted H₂O to exist, the carbides were acted upon by it and hydrocarbons formed.  By lightning, the hydrocarbon vapors and liquids were ignited and the atmosphere was enriched by CO₂ as a result.  Evidence in favor of this theory is found in the existence of carbides and hydrocarbons in meteorites.  It is possible that from CH₄ other organic compounds were produced.  The oxides of Fe and Cu may have catalyzed the oxidation of CH₄ to CH₂O (I).  (I), reacting with NH₃, formed by the catalytic union of its elements, might ultimately have led to the formation of asparaginic aldehyde.  This, by polymerization and condensation, might have yielded a complex, which, on reduction with H₂ and H₂S, would give a substance approximating a protein in nature.  (I) also might have polymerized to sugars, although the presence of acid vapors would have tended to make the end products simple sugars.  Thus organic compounds, even to the extent of relatively complex proteins, could have come into existence without the catalyzing influence of chlorophyll and light.

        LÖFQUIST, H.  See abs. 193.

        LOHMAR, W.  See abs. 1037.

        LOHNES, K.  See abs. 1936.

        LÖHR, O.  See abs. 3374.

        LOHRER, W.  See abs. 1088, 1089.