ORIGINATION OF LIVING BEINGS. 69 



lutely none at all ; and that in other parts of the world 

 rocks of the very same formation are crowded with 

 the records of living forms ; I think it is impossible to 

 place any reliance on the supposition, or to feel oneself 

 justified in supposing that these are the forms in which 

 life first commenced. I have not time here to enter 

 upon the technical grounds upon which I am led to 

 this conclusion, — that could hardly be done properly 

 in half a dozen lectures on that part alone ; — I must 

 content myself with saying that I do not at all believe 

 that these are the oldest forms of life. 



I turn to the experimental side to see what evidence 

 we have there. To enable us to say that we know any- 

 thing about the experimental origination of organiza- 

 tion and life, the investigator ought to be able to take 

 inorganic matters, such as carbonic acid, ammonia, wa- 

 ter, and salines, in any sort of inorganic combination, 

 and be able to build them up into Protein matter, and 

 that that Protein matter ought to begin to live in an 

 organic form. That, nobody has done as yet, and I 

 suspect it will be a long while before anybody does 

 do it. But the thing is by no means so impossible as 

 it looks ; for the researches of modern chemistry have 

 shown us — I won't say the road towards it, but, if I 

 may so say, they have shown the finger-post pointing 

 to the road that may lead to it. 



It is not many years ago — and you must recollect 

 that Organic Chemistry is a young science, not above 

 a couple of generations old, — you must not expect too 

 much of it ; it is not many years ago since it was said 

 to be perfectly impossible to fabricate any organic 

 compound ; that is to say, any non-mineral compound 

 which is to be found in an organized being. It re- 



