THE PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 357 



the chromatin would represent one of the many elaborations of 

 the living protoplasm to subserve certain functions. But the 

 theory leads also to a conclusion of the most fundamental 

 philosophical importance. If living matter, with all its remark- 

 able properties and attributes, has arisen by a process of chemical 

 evolution from simple inorganic compounds, then it follows that 

 the properties of living matter differ only in degree, and not in 

 kind, from those of not-living matter. In other words, such an 

 origin of life would undermine and explode the whole basis of the 

 vitalistic conception of life ; that is to say, the view that the 

 properties of living things are of a fundamentally different order 

 from those of lifeless things, and that the living is not to be 

 explained or interpreted finally by the physico-chemical properties 

 of the not-living. 



Returning now to our primitive protoplasm, surrounded by 

 abundant organic matter for food, let us try to imagine its 

 further history. Our knowledge of living things at the present 

 time would lead us to suppose that the primitive organism would 

 feed and assimilate very actively, growing rapidly in consequence, 

 and then dividing up into smaller masses again ; and further, that 

 it would soon tend to become differentiated into various forms 

 under the influence of different environments in different places. 

 The conditions under which it came into being might continue 

 for many ages, generating fresh supplies of food in the shape of 

 organic compounds synthesised in Nature, but in all probability 

 the supply would fall off gradually, since at the present day 

 organic matter does not appear to be synthesised in Nature apart 

 from living things, at least not to any very great extent ; such 

 organic matter as is found free in Nature at the present time is 

 probably derived chiefly, if not entirely, from the death and decay 

 of living organisms, or from their excretions. Consequently, our 

 primitive protoplasmic organisms would have to find some new 

 means of getting their livelihood. Some doubtless developed at 

 an early period the animal method of preying upon one another. 

 Fortunately, however, for the continuance of life on the globe, 

 others developed special means and mechanisms for building up 

 their substance by assimilating simple inorganic compounds. 

 There were doubtless many methods of such assimilation, since 

 among bacteria at the present time we find the utmost diversity 

 in the methods of utilising simpler compounds for their growth. 



