GREAT STEPS IN EVOLUTION 71 



P 



It must be noted, however, (1) that al- 

 though the synthetic chemist can now manu- 

 facture artificially such natural organic prod- 

 ucts as urea, alcohol, grape sugar, indigo, 

 oxalic acid, tartaric acid, salicylic acid and 

 caffeine, he has not yet come near the arti- 

 ficial synthesis of proteids; (2) that we are 

 at a loss to suggest what, in Nature's as yet 

 very hypothetical laboratory of chemical 

 synthesis, could take the place of the direc- 

 tive chemist; and (3) that there is a great 

 gap between making organic matter and 

 making an organism. 



It is plain, therefore, that the doctrine of 

 the origin of the living from the not-living 

 cannot be held at present with a clear or 

 easy mind, yet we must admit that as an 

 hypothesis it is in harmony with the general 

 trend of evolutionary theory. If facts ac- 

 cumulate which make the hypothesis a ten- 

 able interpretation, it will not in any way 

 affect the dignity and value of living crea- 

 tures, nor of our own life. If the dust of the 

 earth did naturally give rise to living crea- 

 tures, if they are in a real sense born of her 

 and the sunshine, then the whole world be- 

 comes more continuous and vital, and all the 

 inorganic groaning and travailing becomes 

 more intelligible. 



PROTOPLASM AND ORGANISMS. If we whip 



