LIFE, ITS PHYSICAL BASIS AND SIMPLEST EXPRESSION 47 



increases in size. In the same way, when some of these albu- 

 minous micellae are formed anywhere, they facilitate further 

 precipitation within their sphere of influence in such a way that 

 the formation of other micella?, instead of going on uniformly 

 in the liquid mass, is localized at certain points. Thus are 

 found aggregates of an albuminous nature which constitute the 

 primitive protoplasm. This is Nageli's suggestion, and Nageli 

 is one of the most thoughtful biologists who has ever lived ! 



Granting that protoplasm must have had a natural, spon- 

 taneous beginning on this earth, being neither brought to it 

 from other worlds nor created extranaturally on this world, 

 biologists indulge in some speculations as to the probable 

 whereabouts of this first appearance of life, and as to whether 

 living substance was formed spontaneously but once only or 

 several times, and perhaps in several places. It is not necessary 

 here to follow up such speculations. The only one of them with 

 any scientific evidence at all for it is the theory that life began 

 at the poles or perhaps particularly at the north pole. The 

 evidence for this is based, first, on the fact that in accordance 

 with the cosmic theory of world evolution, the poles of the 

 earth must have been first in a condition under which life might 

 exist, and, second, on facts revealed by the study of the geo- 

 graphical distribution of living and fossil organisms. There 

 seems to be some slight scientific foundation for the claim that 

 the first organisms lived in polar regions. 



