102 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



which the latter may develop, would stand in the 

 same relation to the matter of which they are com- 

 posed as the form and molecular structure of the 

 crystal does to its matter. 1 There would be, in 

 fact, just as much reason why the organic new- 

 born unit might develop into the likeness of one 

 already in existence as there would be that the 

 crystal of sodium sulphate which forms to-day in 

 a solution of that substance should resemble that 

 which formed under similar conditions hundreds 

 of years ago, and which will similarly form a 

 thousand years hence. He who believes in the 

 uniformity of natural phenomena should antici- 

 pate no other result. Living matter which is now 

 produced de novo speedily shapes itself into some 

 well-known form; and so, also, new crystalloid 

 matter, which may have been produced synthetic- 

 ally by the chemist in his laboratory, falls naturally 



1 Even though among the varied forms which appear, and 

 are shown by the photographs, some of them actually take on 

 the well-known form of a Penicillium. See Plate 4, Figs. 20, 21, 

 showing Penicillia taken from tubes that had been heated to 

 130 C., and others, as subsequently developed, from tubes 

 similarly heated (Plates 3, 4, Figs. 19, 22). And yet, as pre- 

 viously stated (p. 61), the spores or conidia of such forms were 

 all found to be killed when they had been heated for one 

 minute to 100 C. Altogether different forms of Fungus-germs 

 are, moreover, to be seen in Plate 9, Figs. 53, 54, 55, which 

 proved to be living though they had been taken from a tube 

 that had originally been heated to 145 C. for five minutes. 



