ELEMENTS OF ORIGINALITY 179 



Certainly, only the most simple of life-forms 

 could result at first. However, concerning the prob- 

 lem of which appeared first, micro-organisms or 

 larger specks of living matter, it would seem that the 

 conditions which permitted the origin of one form 

 likewise permitted the origin of the other form, and 

 that therefore probably both forms arose simul- 

 taneously. 



The theory is opposed to the idea that the origin 

 of life is due to pansperm, or a peculiar life-element, 

 or special "rays," etc. One does not need to deny 

 the possibility or the probability that living germs 

 might survive an interstellar voyage and, finding 

 suitable conditions, might germinate, in order to 

 hold that it is absurd to try to account for life on the 

 earth on the hypothesis of an extraneous cause; since, 

 according to my theory, a condition that undoubtedly 

 was present on the early earth, necessarily had to 

 result in the origin of life. 



The theory, for the first time on the basis of science, 

 gives a reasonable and well-founded concept of the 

 origin of life on the earth. 



XVIII. The view that life necessarily arises, or 

 originates, whenever and wherever the conditions 

 permit the formation of a dual-system, as described. 



The same causes always produce the same effects, 

 given the same factors and conditions. 



