NOTES 461 



scientists wish to assist the farmer (they seem to have no other raison d'etre) they 

 must publish accurate accounts. It is not necessary that the experiments should 

 be profitable. All that is required is to show exactly what the cost has been, and 

 the farmer can draw his own conclusions. Wherever these experimental stations 

 are set up the best farmers in the district should be consulted, and the direction 

 of affairs should not be left in the hands of an irresponsible minority who happen 

 to enjoy the temporary authority and splendour attached to the membership of a 

 County Council. It is curious to notice that where democracy is a catchword on 

 every one's lips, there, and there more than anywhere else, exists the unbridled 

 tyranny of self-elected minorities. 



The Origin of Life : The Work of the late Dr. Charlton Bastian, F.R.S. 

 (Surgeon-Commander W. Bastian, R.N.) 



The question of the Origin of Life is one of never-failing interest, and many 

 and varied are the speculations and theories that have been indulged in on this 

 subject by scientific men and by others not so scientific during past ages. It may 

 be said, however, that with one exception very little actual experimental work has 

 been done with a view to seeing whether it is or is not possible to bring about a 

 genesis of living matter by laboratory experiments. 



Whilst admitting that there must have been a de novo origin of living matter 

 at some time in the remote geological past, most scientific men of to-day pin their 

 faith to the doctrine " Omne vivum ex vivo." They believe with Huxley that that 

 doctrine is, as he said, " victorious along the whole line " (British Association 

 Presidential Address, 1870). 



The question then clearly arises whether a life-giving process apart from any 

 supernatural or miraculous agency occurred only once, or, at all events, only in 

 the very early days of the earth's history, or whether it is one that has ever been 

 taking place since the period when it first began. 



Mere speculations and theories do not seem to lead us any further, so that to 

 get any idea of the real truth of this matter Nature has to be questioned by the 

 institution of proper experiments. 



My father, the late Dr. Charlton Bastian, F.R.S., believed that living matter 

 is constantly coming into being in suitable media and surroundings, or, in other 

 words, in Nature's laboratory, by a process of what he termed " archebiosis,' 

 previously described by Huxley as " abiogenesis." His views were based partly 

 on theoretical grounds, but largely on the basis of his own extensive series of 

 experiments performed during the ten or fifteen years preceding his death, and 

 previously, with certain colloidal saline solutions enclosed within hermetically- 

 sealed and sterilised glass tubes. He claimed, by these means, to have brought 

 about the de novo origin of definite well-known living organisms, which grew and 

 which reproduced themselves, and could be cultivated in suitable nutrient media. 



Dr. Bastian died in November 191 5. In May of this year a letter appeared 

 in the Lancet from me, calling attention to the fact that my father's views had met 

 with very little other than unsympathetic and hostile criticism, and that his 

 alleged facts had never been actually and finally disproved by experimental 

 research. 



The writer of the letter was well aware that somewhat similar experiments had 

 been performed by others, but that these having produced nothing but negative 

 results it seemed clear that either Dr. Bastian throughout his long life was totally 

 in error as regards his facts and conclusions, or that there might possibly be some 



