AND ITS INHABITANTS 89 



gist may now rightly regard the universe in its very essence as 

 biocentric." 5 



History of the establishment of biogenesis. The previous 

 lectures in this course have described the theories in regard to 

 the origin of this environment on the earth, so we turn now 

 to the question of the origin of life that primeval question 

 which has been asked by all ages and the answers to which, if 

 they do no more, at least epitomize the philosophic and scien- 

 tific perspective of the times. 



One of the greatest intellectual characteristics of the Greeks 

 was their scientific curiosity, and therefore it is not strange 

 that the first biological question which they propounded was 

 in regard to the origin of life. Even to the best minds of the 

 ancients there was little incongruity in the idea of animals 

 and plants arising de novo from earth or water. Although 

 Aristotle, whose scientific studies formed the foundations of 

 natural history, devoted a great deal of thought and ingenuity 

 to the subject of the origin of animals, he apparently accepted 

 with little reservation the statements that even such highly 

 developed organisms as worms, insects, and some fishes could 

 come into being from mud. Such ideas are voiced over and 

 over again through more than twenty centuries by philosopher 

 and poet, theologian and layman. 



Lucretius, in his De rerum natura, says that "with good 

 reason the earth has gotten the name of mother, since all 

 things are produced out of the earth, forming in rain water 

 and in the warm vapors raised by the sun." Virgil in the 

 fourth Georgic, which is devoted to a discussion of bees, 

 graphically describes a simple method used in Egypt for obtain- 

 ing bees from the dead bodies of bullocks. 



Coming to the mediaeval period and later we find Cardan 

 stating that water engenders fishes and that various types of 

 animals arise from fermentation. Swan in his Speculum mundi 



5 Henderson, L. J., "The Fitness of the Environment," 1913. 



