THE ORIGIN OF LIFE: A CHEMIST'S FANTASY 315 



animate material are only possible apparently in a material of 

 which carbon is the essential constituent. Carbon stands alone 

 among the elements. It is the only one known to us whose 

 atoms hang together in large numbers and can be arranged 

 in a great variety of patterns. The peculiarities of animate 

 matter may certainly be said to be in large measure determined 

 by the presence of carbon, though nitrogen and oxygen, of 

 course, play an all-important part. Our peculiarities may well 

 prove to be traceable ultimately to those of the elements of which 

 we are built — indeed it cannot well be otherwise — yet the 

 difference must be vast between elementary material and living 

 material. It is waste of time, I believe, to pay much attention to 

 the argument from analogy ; indeed I feel that Prof. Schafer 

 relied too much on analogy in the earlier part of his address. 



As Dr. Haldane points out — " Living organisms are dis- 

 tinguished from everything else that we at present know by 

 the fact that they maintain and reproduce themselves with 

 their characteristic structure and activities. Nothing resembling 

 this phenomenon is at present known to us in the inorganic 

 world." I do not understand, however, why he goes on to say, 

 11 and if, as we may confidently hope, similar phenomena are 

 ultimately found in what we at present call the inorganic world, 

 our present conception of that world as a mere world of matter 

 would be completely altered." Of course it would but the 

 eventuality is one that I, as a chemist, cannot contemplate as 

 possible ; far from having confident hope, I believe such 

 discovery to be out of the question. 



Prof. Schafer says the contention is fallacious that growth and 

 reproduction are properties possessed only by living bodies and 

 refers to the growth of crystals — but in this and not a few other 

 cases, as I have said, he carries the argument from analogy too 

 far. The growth of crystals is a process of mere apposition of 

 like simple units, which become assembled, time after time, in 

 similar fashion like so many bricks ; and there is no limit to 

 crystal growth ; given proper conditions, large crystals in- 

 evitably increase at the expense of the smaller similar crystals 

 present along with them in a solution — hence it is that occasion- 

 ally in Nature crystals are met with of huge size. The 

 multiplication of similar crystals is the consequence of the 

 presence of a multiplicity of nuclei in a solution ; nothing 

 corresponding to cell division is ever observed in cases of 



