THE ORIGIN OF LIFE : A CHEMIST'S 



FANTASY 



" Behold, the beginning of philosophy is the observation of how men con- 

 tradict each other and the search whence cometh this contradiction and the 

 censure and mistrust of bare opinion. And it is an inquiry into that which 

 seems, whether it rightly seems ; and the discovery of a certain rule, even as 

 we have found a balance for weights and a plumb-line for straight and crooked. 

 This is the beginning of philosophy." — EPICTETUS. 



The Presidential Address delivered recently to the British 

 Association at Dundee by Prof. Schafer and the subsequent 

 independent discussion, at a joint sitting of the Physiological 

 and Zoological Sections of the Association, of the subject 

 considered in the President's discourse will at least have served 

 as a corrective to the wave of vitalism that has passed over 

 society of late years, owing to the pervasive eloquence of Bergson 

 and other writers who have elected to discuss the problems 

 of life, mainly from the metaphysical and psychological points 

 of view, with little reference to the knowledge gained by 

 experimental inquiry. 



As Prof. Schafer himself remarked, the problem of the 

 Origin of Life is at root a chemical problem. It is somewhat 

 surprising, therefore, that the chemists were not invited to join 

 in the debate at Dundee : judging from the remarks that fell 

 from several of the speakers, their sobering presence was by 

 no means unnecessary ; it is clear that, so long as biologists are 

 satisfied with the modicum of chemistry which is now held to 

 serve their purpose, they will never be able to escape from 

 the region of vague surmise. 



On the Tuesday Prof. Macallum fancifully pictured the earth 

 as at one time " a gigantic laboratory where there had been 

 a play of tremendous forces, notably electricity, which might 

 have produced millions of times organisms that survived but a 

 few hours but in which also, by a favourable conjunction of 

 those forces, what we now call life might have come into exist- 

 ence." I think I heard him then refer to the great stores of 



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